


Slytherin's Lioness

by Calypphire



Series: Hope of the Heart [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Reunions, Flashbacks, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Intimacy, Mild Language, Other, Parent Severus Snape, Parent-Child Relationship, Series, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-06-23 21:01:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19709362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calypphire/pseuds/Calypphire
Summary: Alternate Universe:Severus is finally reunited with his daughter Zaria after nearly 9 years of being apart.Going through his old memories and trying to make up for lost time and get through the loss of Zaria's mother, Severus's wife, as well as getting through expectations of others, the father-daughter duo just want to get by... and give a small reminder of when Slytherin has a Lioness on their side.Rated M - changed from the T rating as some of the ideas that have come through in looking at continuing may not be suitable for T-rated.





	1. Reunited

**Author's Note:**

> _Naturally I do NOT own anything to do with Harry Potter and his fellow Wizards. Original based characters are from my own imagination._
> 
> _Italic = past thoughts/flashback_
> 
> In this fiction Severus had moved on from Lily Evans, where he did marry another and had a daughter.  
> Due to circumstances he had been separated from his wife and child for many years and it is upon the death of Bethany, that finally allowed for Severus and Zaria to be together.
> 
> A lot more milder tone to what I have written thus far on this site.  
> I do hope you enjoy.
> 
> The story begins with Severus waiting at the airport - (don't ask, for some reason I kept picturing an airport, so I am going with it).

Chapter 1  
Reunited

He had expected this. Not one bit. But what else could he do?

The letter came and he had to take up the responsibility. He was met with mild protest on this, but he was having none of it. Not now! Not when he had to play the role he had been denied for all these years. Until now.

Severus Snape waiting as patiently as possible. Why of all the options to have been given, Muggle flight the chosen one? He would have preferred to have gone to retrieve her personally, but no...

‘Blasted regulations and whatever else those dunderheads in the Ministry like to do in order to create a headache!’ he thinks to himself.

Finally, people started to emerge from the large gated barrier that served as a border of sorts, indicating that these people had come from lands far away from British shores.

His heart skipped a little when he saw her coming through; pushing her trolley full of luggage, looking around to hopefully see the one person she had been denied access to, just as much as he was denied access to her.

Her father.

Severus quietly observed on how much she looked like him and her mother equally. Silky black hair cascading down her back, nice and long, bordering a face with high cheekbones, celestial nose and hazel coloured wide set eyes. Slender frame and skin that spoke that she had been in the sun quite a fair bit, as a natural sun-kissed tan was even against her, perhaps natural pale tone.

“Zaria?”

The girl hears him and looks over to see him and try to manoeuvre her trolley around.

By this Severus had gone over.

“Would you like a hand?”

“Are you who I am expecting to meet?” she asks him.

Understandable to ask.

Sure, she would know his face, but she would know of such things a Polyjuice potion and other methods of impersonation.

‘Smart girl,’ he thinks to himself, a little proudly.

“You are Zaria Hope Snape, yes?”

“I am.”

“Born to Bethany Maria Snape, nee Greystone, and Severus Tarquin Tobias Snape?”

“Anyone could get that information,” the girl counters.

“Yet, how many would know that you were born prematurely? Or how you used to steal your father’s strawberry or raspberry tarts? Or that your favourite ice cream flavour is strawberry?”

Zaria smiles a little. “I suppose you’re who I am meant to meet, Dad.”

It wasn’t until then that Severus figured that she was teasing him, for she stepped in and hugged him around the waist, Severus smiles a little and returned the hug firmly.

“How missed you, so, so much!” he tells her.

“I missed you, too, Dad,” she mutters.

It wasn’t long before they had arrived at the Manor home that had been Severus’s home since it was handed to him via inheritance through the Prince line. He still owned the old house in Cokeworth, but it was more of an investment of sorts.

Truthfully, Severus had no idea what to do with the blasted house. The bane of his childhood! A childhood he swore he would never repeat upon his own daughter.  
From the way she appeared, she was very healthy, well nourished and perfect, (in his view), for a soon to be teenage girl. He noticed she had earrings, two sets in each ear. He remembered that discussion between himself and Bethany over those earrings. Both times.

“I don’t know how much you would remember of this place, but it was your home once,” he goes to say.

Zaria shakes her head. “I honestly do not know much, if truth be told, Dad. But Mum did explain to me enough times, I just didn’t realise that the entire hobby farm could fit, and double.”

Severus felt a slight pang. “I am sorry you had to leave it behind. Truth is that I wanted to go to you, have you stay where you may have been more comfortable. Unfortunately, being stuck under the most ridiculous rules and obligations.”

“I know, Dad, the same ones that kept you away from Mum and me,” Zaria replies, sadly.

“Perhaps in time you will get to go back?” Severus suggests fairly.

Zaria only nods, a little hopeful on the idea.

“Would you like a tour and see if you can remember anything? Or go straight to your room?”

“Mmm, I am rather tired, so maybe just to my room? I’d like to look around, but, I don’t even know what rules are for me here, if you have any?”

Severus hadn’t thought of any rules. But then, other than exchanged letters, he hadn’t had much chance to be the girl’s father for nearly 9 years. He was used to being a Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but that was completely different.

“I think for now we will just make sure we keep the one that concerns your medication routine,” he decides to tell her.

“Okay,” Zaria agrees.

For the many years of when she was born, Severus and Bethany took Zaria to be examined and seen to get to the root of what was causing her to stop breathing, or to suddenly collapse, to be told time and time again that there was nothing wrong, or out of the ordinary. But, it was farthest from the truth, for as soon as Bethany took Zaria to Australia, where Bethany was from originally, to get answers, it was found that Zaria had a wizarding form of asthma and a hole in her heart, it was a bloody miracle on how she survived for as long as she had. For both were dangerous on their own if not treated, but to have both...

It angered Severus to no end; because he and Bethany had pushed and pushed since before Zaria was even born and straight after her early birth, to make sure that there was nothing wrong with her.

The hole was fixed, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t without troubles, same with the asthma. So as a result, she was on a routine of certain medicinal potions and a wizard puffer is on hand.

I was also upon all of this when someone’s influence wielded somehow, for as soon as Severus was putting in the last detail, so he would be able to join his wife and daughter, he was suddenly barred from leaving the United Kingdom. To make it worse, Bethany and Zaria were unable to return once Zaria was well enough to travel.  
Luckily Bethany had her old family’s property to retreat to and ensure Zaria had a roof.

What helped was that they weren’t stopped from keeping in contact from each other. But it was frustrating to not be able to be there, to see his daughter meet various milestones. Even more with her recovery and gaining strength and finding what she loved to do.

He remembered fondly on how Bethany would tell him how much she wanted to constrict Zaria’s activities, but when this was tried, Zaria rebelled and was miserable. Plus she had the medication that allowed her to live as normal of a life as possible. Their daughter hated on being treated as though she were something fragile to be kept in a glass case.

They reached a set of large doors that were located on the second floor.

“My room is right next door,” Severus gestures to a grander set of doors not too far down. “This used to be your room, so I couldn’t imagine you in any other room, to be honest.”

Zaria’s jaw dropped. “This is bigger than my room back home!”

She suddenly flinched at her words and looked at her father with worry.

Severus gently places a hand on her shoulder. “I understand that things are still in transition. Please do not think that I am offended if you refer where you grew up as home, for it is expected, plus it was genuinely home to you.”

With some of her mind at ease by this, Zaria ventures in to look around.

The room was pretty large, with decent sized four-post bed with a canopy, fireplace with beautiful mantle above and around it, and lounge and table before it. Bookshelves, desk, walk-in wardrobe, and even its own bathroom!

She frowns a little.

“Everything is plain coloured,” she comments.

“I cast a spell that will allow you to change the colours and style of the room and furniture to your liking. Once you’re in favour with what you like, we can make it permanent. I want you comfortable in your adaption to being back here, Zaria.”

Zaria gave him a grateful look.

“I wish I could remember being in this room, Dad,” she says.

“I wish that I was able to join you when I was meant to. It mattered not to me on whether we lived in this Manor, or stayed in Australia. You were our priority, and I wanted to be with you and your mother,” Severus’s voice was a little constricted, which he cleared with a small cough. “Keep in mind of your items that are still yet to arrive, but that is easy to sort out.”

Not everything could be packed with Zaria; Severus put his foot down when certain handlers of the situation wanted to keep the girl from having items she felt were important.

“You denied me my daughter for just over 8 blasted years! You are not denying her of her valued memories!” his voice was dangerous and enough for the morons to relent.

“Would you like some help to unpack?”

“No thank you, Dad,” Zaria replies politely.

Severus retreated to his own room, where arrays of equal dark to light colours were met. It was not hard to miss the green, silver and black. He was proud of being a Slytherin, his Bethany never shied away because of this fact, if anything she was glad that he was proud of his House, even with her being, of all Houses, a Gryffindor.

The bed and furniture, even the fireplace was larger than Zaria’s, including the bathroom.

This wasn’t the main suite, however. That was way on the other side of the manor. Severus was never comfortable with it, so this was the room he chose for himself.

Even Bethany didn’t like the main suite when she moved in with him.

He pondered over what had happened to have been lucky to have had Bethany enter his life.

A witch who came from Australia, placed into Hogwarts because it was the only school for her to attend within the entire of the UK, and, though she was a Gryffindor, she was extremely tolerant and full of knowledge of ‘Wizarding etiquette’ and understood why Purebloods were the way they were in a degree.  
That wasn’t to say she was in favour for the use of ‘Mudblood’, however. But... she was the only Gryffindor who dared and successfully managed to befriend some of the Slytherins and ignored the jibes and hissing from her fellow Gryffindors.

He couldn’t help but laugh when Bethany put the infuriating Sirius Black and James Potter in their places when they tried to get her ‘in line’.

_“Oh, and what are you gonna do about it you deluded Pom if I don’t do what is ‘expected’? Send me to the Prison Island that’s been hidden in summer for a thousand years? Oh... wait... that’s where I am from!”_

This confused the heck out of Potter and Black, sending the small group of Slytherins into fits of laughter. They were too used to Bethany’s term of phrases by then and know that it wasn’t belittling – unless one wanted to see it that way.

She understood why Severus was put into the predicament he was placed in by becoming Death Eater to Voldemort. The many a times where she would just hold him and sooth him and love him.

_“I know, my Viper, I know,” her whispered voice would say._

How he missed her so.

It hurt.

So, so much, it hurt.

Especially when he couldn’t be where he needed to be!

He was happy to finally be reunited with Zaria.

He just wished it was for happier reasons.

A single tear rolled down Severus’s cheek.


	2. First Meet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italic = past  
> Normal =Present

Chapter 2  
First Meet

_He sat alone in the train compartment, feeling a little downhearted. Lily had promised to sit with him on the journey back to Hogwarts, but she wasn’t here. Instead, she had told him that she had been offered to sit in another part of the train with her other friends and she was going to take it._

_“Look, I haven’t seen my friends all summer, Severus!” Lily tells him with an air of impatience. “Surely you could go and sit with Avery and Malciber?” This was said with disapproval._

_But, Severus didn’t wish to sit with them; he wanted to sit with his friend, Lily. She promised!_

_The door slid open and a girl with hazel colour eyes, celestial nose and wavy chestnut brown hair appeared._

_“Oh, sorry, I thought this was empty, I am just having a bugger of a time trying to find a seat no taken, and I was ditched by the ranga shiela who was meant to be my guide,” she says between apologetic, annoyed and clearly nervous._

_Severus not only noticed that she had an accent; she wasn’t wearing any colours that represent any of the four Hogwarts Houses, indicating that she was new._

_“You could sit here if you like?” he offers to the seats opposite to him._

_The girl smiles; “So long as I am imposing.”_

_“I wouldn’t have offered otherwise.”_

_At this she dragged her trunk in; Severus helps her to put it away._

_When they sat down, he extends his right hand; “My name is Severus Snape.”_

_“Bethany Greystone,” she accepts the handshake._

_“Where are you from?”_

_“Australia, my parents got transfers to work in the Ministry here, and since Hogwarts is the only school around, I am on this train,” she answers._

_“What do your parents do?”_

_“Some ambassador or liaison stuff to keep good ties between the nations, considering the UK and Australia has continued in connections and not just through Muggos.”_

_“Muggos?”_

_“I believe you refer them as Muggles.”_

_“Oh!”_

_There was a moment’s silence, then a tap on the window._

_Bethany grins wide and opens it to greet a woman with the same chestnut brown coloured hair as her._

_“Hey, Mum!”_

_“You nearly forgot these,” Mrs Greystone says, handing a paper bag to Bethany._

_Bethany takes it and opens it._

_“Aw, beauty! Thanks Mum!”_

_“I see you’ve already met someone?”_

_“This is Severus, Severus this is my Mum.”_

_Severus gives a polite nod. “Hello.”_

_“So what year are you in?” Mrs Greystone asks him._

_“About to start my fourth year,” said Severus._

_“That’s the year I am going to be in,” Bethany sounded delighted._

_Severus didn’t know what to think of this, but the fact that this girl didn’t flinch at the sight of him, or insult him, and they had just met._

_‘She will just run off when she learns about me,’ he thought to himself._

_But that’s just it... she didn’t run away... even when the Sorting House put her in Gryffindor, she was still wanted to get to know this boy from Slytherin House. Calling Lily a drongo ranga for thinking that just because someone liked what she didn’t like, which was the Dark Arts that they ought to stop and accept what she considered to be acceptable._

_“For one, I happen to have a small fascination with the Dark Arts, too, and I am in your House! I am not afraid of trying to understand a little more about something that is of an interest to another I call friend. That is what true friendship is!”_

_This was said within the first number of weeks of Bethany being in the school._

###

Zaria didn’t remember falling asleep, but when she woke up she was genuinely refreshed. She had spent the last hours of the evening sorting out her room and saying she would be joining her father for a light dinner, but when she sat on her bed to read...

It seemed her father had come to check in on her and just like what her own mother would have done, for the book she had been reading was on the bedside table and a blanket had been placed over her.

Pushing back the blanket and sitting up, Zaria rubbed whatever sleep she had, before getting out of the bed.

She had changed the colour of the posts to being of a lighter brown with dark and light finishing flecks throughout; the canopy was of deep red colour with mint green trim, though she wasn’t sure if she was going to keep it that way. Knowing that she would be able to change it until she’s finally settled helped.

It was the same with the walls, which were currently a light blue, or anything else for that matter.

Doing her best to not think about it, Zaria had a very quick shower, (still getting over the idea of her own bathroom), and dressed into some fresh clothing, before heading on out of her room.

That was when a House Elf appears.

“Master Snape assigned Taffy to help Miss Snape if she needed.”

“Is my Dad awake?”

“Master Snape is awake. He is in little dining room, Miss Snape; would you like Taffy to take you there?”

“Yes please.”

The place felt big, but Zaria was taken through the quickest way to the ‘little dining room’, which was something of a nook room just off of the kitchen.

Seated at the little breakfast table, with a bowl of fruit with yoghurt and glass of pumpkin juice in front of him and reading the Daily Prophet, was her father.

Severus folds the paper in a way so is to look up.

“How did you sleep?” he asked.

“I didn’t realise I was that tired,” Zaria replies, sitting down in the seat next to him.

“Jetlag I can assume would do that,” said Severus.

“I just wish I could stop yawning at the moment,” she says, trying to suppress the need to yawn and failing, her hand covers it.

“Perhaps having some breakfast might help,” he suggests.

Zaria helps herself to the cereal, and there was quiet for a moment, except for any clinking of cutlery to bowls.

“Anything of interest in the news?”

“Other than an escaped criminal from Azkaban,” Severus answers, allowing her to have a look for herself.

Taking the paper and skimming over the words.

“Wait? Wasn’t he someone you went to school with once?” she makes a face at the face in the photo.

“Unfortunately.”

“He looks like an ocker with kangaroos loose in the top paddock... or a walking corpse,” Zaria’s expression didn’t change when she put the paper down, with the mug shot of the escaped criminal toward the table surface.

“He’s a dangerous man who needs a good dose of karma,” said Severus, though amused by his daughter’s choice of words to describe the man he was once forced to attend school with; Sirius Black.

“Maybe he might get hit by a bus; can that be classed as a good dose of karma?”

“You are like your mother,” Severus chuckles.

###

_“Why do you keep hanging around him for? Don’t you know what House he is in? Or who he hangs out with? Or... or where he is even from?”_

_Bethany glares right at the tall boy with slick black hair and picture boy handsome looks._

_“You must have a very short term memory loss, Black; perhaps I ought to start calling you goldfish?” she shoots back. “What’s it to you and your business on whom I choose to hang out with?”_

_She and Severus were seated near a tree by the lake conversing and doing homework together. Lily had been with them for a little while, until she got annoyed by Bethany proving her wrong in something to do with a transfiguration spell and walked off; which seemed to have prompted for Sirius Black and James Potter to come trudging on up, flanked of course by their lackeys, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew._

_“A good girl like you shouldn’t be hanging around with a Slytherin scum like him!” Black sneers._

_“Severus is my friend, you bloody drongo! I couldn’t care less on his House! Back at my old school we didn’t give a bloody stuff on which House you ended up in, mateship is a huge thing and I still hold on to that!”_

_Black said something to Potter, only to get blasted by a spell from Severus’s wand._

_It was enough of a warning for the two leaders to lead the small gang away from them._

_Bethany gives Severus a look of appreciation, and Severus was quietly humbled by Bethany’s friendship._

_Their fourth year was full of ups and downs, but Bethany was loyal to a fault. Going as far as sticking up for Slytherin House where she saw fit to do so._

_“How come you weren’t sorted with us?” one Slytherin of their year asked._

_“I nearly was. The Hat had a tough time deciding where I was meant to be, and it chose the lion,” Bethany answers._

_“Well, you’re just as good to be a Slytherin!”_

_She was the only Gryffindor to be accepted among them._

_How Severus’s heart beat with joy whenever Bethany would come by and simply chat with him, or the friends she made with his House._

_But his heart was also in a bit of a slump, for he could see that Lily was starting to distance herself more and more away from him. She would simply say that she had to be elsewhere. Now and again she would do her best to stand up for Severus against the Marauders, but not as often as she once did. It seemed that Bethany wasn’t afraid to receive a detention or other for fighting and sticking up for Severus._

_When the end of the school year had come around, Bethany made sure that Severus had her address and invited him to come by her place. She had learned of his home life and, as much as Severus didn’t wish to be pitied or anything, he could see her genuine want to help him have a good summer for a change._

“Are you okay, Dad?” Zaria asks, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Severus rests a hand upon hers. “Just going over what we might do today to pass the time,” he tells her, a small white lie, but not really. “What would you like to do today?”

Zaria had to really think for a moment.

“I guess I’d like to see more of the Manor?” she then settles.

A warm smile on her father’s lips. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drongo = idiot
> 
> ranga = redhead
> 
> shiela = girl/woman
> 
> Beauty = sweet, awesome.
> 
> Muggo = Muggle (I made this up, but it feels like a typical Aussie word)
> 
> ocker = an unsophisticated person
> 
> Kangaroos loose in the top paddock = Intellectually inadequate
> 
> "Prison Island" is Australia for those who weren't sure what Bethany meant.
> 
> "Pom" is a reference to British/English it's an afferent for "Prisoners of Mother England", only I have no idea when the E got dropped.


	3. I'm Here For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italic = past memories  
> Normal = present
> 
> image horse 1 = Saffron  
> image horse 2 = Aero

Chapter 3  
I’m Here For You

“Whoa! When Mum spoke of the pool, I thought she was exaggerating!” Zaria spoke with amazement.

“Pretty sure you were given photos of the Manor,” said Severus.

“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t fully imagine it to be like this!”

‘This’ was a large swimming pool, with a spa to the side, it was indoors, but the walls were adaptable to change throughout the year to compensate for what was going on with the weather outside, and the water was also adaptable, so it stayed swimmable for whenever it was used.

“This will help with some of your water therapy, as I have been keeping as up-to-date with your therapies, exercises and treatments,” Severus tells her.

“You have?”

“Your mother made sure I knew.”

Zaria was very relieved by this.

Due to the problems and the delay in discovering troubles of the heart and lungs, Zaria ended up being faces with issues; so other than medication, she had therapies, too.

As trying as some of her regime could be at times, they were a need.

Severus showed Zaria more of her home, her home before she was to call Australia home, the home where she was born in; the home she was getting reacquainted with.

Her home by blood inheritance. Her home the moment Bethany, her mother, stood by him when he had nowhere else to turn in that moment that would turn his life almost completely upside down.

###

_“Oh, my Gosh, Severus?!” Bethany stood aghast when she opened the door to see him standing on the doorstep, covered her mouth for a second at the sight._

_Covered head to toe in bruises, bloodied nose and all mattered stood the fifteen year old Severus._

_“I didn’t know where else to go!” he said, before breaking down into sobs._

_Without a word, Bethany pulled her arms around him and held him tight, rubbing his back._

_Severus remembered that moment, like many others. Their fourth year had just ended and it wasn’t even the first three days into the summer holidays. He had gone to Lily’s House first, being the closest to his home, but Lily simply made excuses for him to not come in – cringing and recoiling at the blood that was pouring out of his nose; telling him to man up and stop being a baby! Ignoring his pleas for help!_

_So he ran as fast as he could, with tears rolling, until he could run no more and just kept walking until he somehow found his way to Bethany’s House. He couldn’t even remember if he took any buses or other modes of transport. He just remembered the address she had given him a few days before they were on the train for home._

_“What happened?” Bethany asked._

_“He... he killed her... he killed my Mum!” Severus wept into her shoulder. “He nearly killed me... I just barely out of there!”_

_“MUM! DAD!” Bethany calls upon hearing this._

_He was taken in that very night and looked after, with his wounds tended to, some spare clothing to have after a steaming hot shower and some food to fill up his belly, plus a nice comfortable bed._

_Bethany’s home wasn’t like his own, or any of the wizard homes he had ever been in before – he had been to the Malfoy Manor and a few of his fellow Slytherins’ Homes, and only twice been in Lily Evan’s home, though that was very much Muggle, like his own home, but... he didn’t own a television, unlike the Greystones, or some of the things that were dubbed too Muggle to function in the Wizarding World, yet, it was on when he arrived on their doorstep, with some funky tuned commercial playing from it._

_Mr and Mrs Greystone had organised whatever they could, from getting someone to go to Severus’s home in Cokeworth. They were stunned that the boy even came that far._

_“I tried to ask for help and explain from someone I knew, but got turned away!” he answered to their concerned questions. “I thought she was my friend! She knew what my father was like. I told her the day before I was scared for my life, and my Mum’s, but...”_

_“Then she is not a friend,” Mr Greystone tells him unimpressed by what he was hearing. “If she was a real friend, she would be doing what we’re doing now. Wouldn’t have mattered if Muggo police were called, at least its help.”_

_At first Severus didn’t know whether he wanted to hear what Mr Greystone was saying. At that moment, he was still in shock of what had happened, and the flurry over the following few days where Severus learned that not only had his father killed his mother, the bastard had taken his own life, knowing what would happen if certain people learned the truth of what had truly been going on._

_There was a matter of custody and all other arrangements for the young Slytherin; during this he stayed with the Greystones, where he was treated with respect and dignity and most of all, like person of worth._

_He learned that he was now the sole heir to the Prince lineage and its titles, riches and properties that came with it. Severus had forever been led to believe that his mother had been disowned by that side of the family; turned out that he had been lied to._

_Bethany and her parents were with him every step of the way, as well as Lucius Malfoy and his father, Abraxas Malfoy, who ended up being the ones to be suitable in gaining custody of Severus._

_Afraid that he would be barred from ever seeing Bethany again, Abraxas assured him that will not be the case._

_“Do no fret, Severus, we know of Miss Greystone and her open-mindedness toward our culture, and knowing our ways, and of what she had done on the many occasions for Slytherin House, dubbed the Slytherin’s Lioness if I am not mistaken. She is welcome in my House as a result.”_

_Bethany even went as far as helping him in picking designs for his room within Malfoy Manor._

_“Tell me again how you didn’t end up in Slytherin?” Lucius Malfoy would ask._

_“I have no idea how that hat works in all honesty,” she answers. “I guess whatever qualities I have seemed to be more in line with the lion than they did for the serpent. But, do not think for a moment that I am like some of the other lions and lionesses in that House!”_

_“No, unlike one lioness, you stepped up for my brother. This will not be forgotten,” Lucius said with grace and true genuine fondness. “Even for someone who associates with various Muggle styles.”_

__Bethany gives a polite response. “Different culture, Lucius, one that teaches the etiquettes and such of the Magic World to those of Muggo upbringings, and Muggo ways to those who were more attuned to the Magic World life before starting school.__  
“We found that it helps for the Muggo-born to open their minds and not push their values and beliefs on to us. We’ve got no problem with some of the stuff they wish to keep, but others... it doesn’t work, and we don’t allow it to.  
“Australians are known for being laid back, yes, this is equal on both sides and in between. But do not take the laid back living for weakness or a reason to push us over. It’s what helped during the World Wars, something that doesn’t seem to be acknowledged much here in the UK.”

_“Unfortunately, that is because certain classes had been cut since the old Headmaster Dippet passed on and the seat went to Dumbledore,” Severus spoke, still staring at the different shades of green that were patched over a wall, trying to decide which one looked better for most of the room. “That is what I have been told by Lord Malfoy and a few of the past students of the school now grown.”_

_Lucius confirms with; “And any suggestions bought forwards are knocked down.”_

_Bethany frowns. “How come?”_

_“Merlin’s left testicle if we knew,” Severus replies._

_“What’s was wrong with the right one?” Bethany jokes in reply, sending both Severus and Lucius into a fit of laughter._

_He would also join in on outings to the stables, where Bethany was part of a horse riding club, and introduced him to a therapy he didn’t even know existed until he met a beautiful palomino mare named Saffron, who was gentle and very patient; Severus wasn’t keen on riding, not at first, but he liked the fact that he had something to occupy his mind. Of all the horses, it was Saffron he was just drawn to, the second horse was Bethany’s own horse; a Cleveland Bay gelding she had named Aero._

  


_Bethany was a very well established rider and champion in her own right, starting to enter and compete in the competitions in the UK, like she once did in Australia. So she did guide Severus, being a very good teacher – other than the other trainers and riders, who helped him._

_He was so sure that the Malfoys would object it if they ever knew, so at first wanted to keep the club and the horses quiet. Severus rarely had many things to look forward to in his life, and to have this, it was something he couldn’t bear to lose._

_For the club was mostly Muggle, with a few Wizard associations, given that there weren’t any Wizard only Equine facilities such as the one they were attending and, guess even the Ministry of Magic was able to see reason to allowing it, with very strict guidelines to help ensure their secrecy is still in place._

_Either way, it turned into one of a few escapes for him whenever things were getting too much._

###

_“What are you doing here?” Severus hears a voice he didn’t expect to hear._

_He turns to see; “Lily?”_

_Wearing the best riding clothes, her red hair pinned back in perfect elegance and green eyes with surprise and some other emotion Severus couldn’t figure out._

_“What are you doing here, Severus? Since when can you afford to be in such a place as this? Or those clothes!”_

_Severus was also wearing horse riding gear, and he looked very sharp in it. He even had his hair back so that it wouldn’t get in the way. He didn’t know what to think or say._

_Lily also noticed the horse he happened to be tending to._

_“And what are you doing with Saffron?”_

_“What does it look like I am doing?” Severus says rather deflated, in his hand was a horse brush._

_“Do you know who owns this horse? How would they feel if they knew you were going anywhere near her?”_

_“They’d be grateful that one of their prized mares is being well looked after,” said a dissatisfied toned voice. “Hello, Lily, enjoying your summer?”  
Bethany appeared._

_“And how would you know?” Lily asked._

_“Because Saffron happens to be my grandfather’s, who not only owns Saffron and a few of the other horses that are here, but owns this club,” Bethany answers._

_“But... Robert Kingston is a Muggle! A champion horse trainer in many equine events for not just England, but also Ireland!”_

_“And Australia! Where he was born!”_

_Lily shakes her head at this. “No... He’s British, and a Muggle!”_

_“My family has a strong back and forth relationship with Australia and the United Kingdom, predominantly the British side, but we don’t deny any Scottish, Welsh or even Irish, roots,” Bethany crosses her arms. “Yes, Poppy is a Muggle and was born in Carlton, Victoria, but he married a witch, my Nanna, who was British... and had attended Hogwarts herself once.”_

_“And makes some pretty amazing scones,” Severus couldn’t help saying._

_Bethany grins. “Yeah, she does.”_

_“But... how...? How did you get to being here? You’re live in Spinner’s End! You cannot afford to be in this place!”_

_Severus stiffened at this, whereas Bethany wanted to slap the girl._

_“Didn’t... didn’t you hear the news...? Or read the papers?” Severus asks Lily in a low, trying not to break tone._

_Lily goes over what she could recall. “Yeah... some husband killed his wife in that area. I heard that there had been so much abuse going on in that house, going on for years, in fact... and what astounded me was the woman didn’t just walk away. I mean... what idiot stays with a person like that?”_

_“The kind where she was trapped and had no means of getting away, no matter how much she wanted to,” Severus mutters._

_Lily gave a ‘pfft’ sound. “That is no excuse! If she really the brains, she would have just walked on out! I mean... what if she had kids? What bitch puts a man over her kids?”_

_Severus clenched his hands into fists, though the horse brush made it difficult with his right. He wanted to speak... say anything... but all he could do was turn on his heel and walk away._

_“Sev!” Bethany calls to him, worried._

_“What did I say?”_

_Severus would learn a little later how Bethany had whirled on to Lily Evans and told her that the people she was talking about were Severus’s parents!_

_“For someone who knew about his home life, you have a lot of ignorance!”_

###

Later on, when the last hours of the afternoon were slowly turning into the early hours of the evening, Zaria found her father in the library, sitting on the couch, with a book open on his lap and a glass of some sort of alcohol she didn’t know the name of.

“Is it okay if I sit with you for a while?” she asks, she felt a little silly for asking, but she didn’t know her father’s routine of the night, and she missed the one she had with her mother, and she was feeling rather lonely.

Severus pats the place beside him, Zaria take it.

“You know, when you were much, much younger, you used to always join me in here, just before your bedtime.”

“I did?”

He nods, a small smile on his lips; “You always insisted for me to read out whatever it was I happen to be reading, didn’t matter what it was, not ‘The Fountain of Fair Fortune’ or ‘Cinderella’ for you, at least not until you were tucked up in bed to have those. It was ‘Potions Secrets’, ‘Dark of the Light’ or ‘How to Charm and Transfigure your Garden’.”

“Charm and Transfigure our Garden? That sounds like something Mum would read,” Zaria said with curious amusement.

“It was something she would read,” Severus tells her. “Yet, your Mum was as keen to understand my interests, so it was fair on her to understand hers, too. Turning out that our strengths in our subjects helped the other out where we were weakest, until they were equal to our strongest.”

“You don’t come off as someone who has a weak subject, Dad.”

“I hid it well, at least until your mother figured it out,” Severus winks, Zaria giggles.

There was a few moments pause, until Zaria asked what her father was reading now.

“A guilty pleasure I hide from Lucius Malfoy,” he replies, showing her the title.

“Wow, Mum did have a strong influence over you,” Zaria grins. “She would read those to me, until I was able to read them for myself. But every so often, she would...”

She then went quiet.

“Zaria?” Severus speaks with concern.

She looks at him, her hazel eyes starting to brim at the bottom.

“Sorry... I...”

Severus shakes his head and offers to place an arm around her, which she not only accepted but pulled herself closer, wanting to her father’s embrace. Zaria no longer had her mother, but she wasn’t afraid to know who she had, and was willing to take the role he wasn’t able to for so long.

“Don’t ever be sorry for missing your Mum,” she hears him say.

For deep down, Severus, too, missed his own mother. She loved him, did her best to keep him safe, the reasons why they were living in the hell they were in.

Now, his own daughter is facing similar circumstances, only she still had him.

Like how Bethany was to him, (and those who cared), Severus was going to be the same for Zaria.

He owed it not only to Zaria, but to Bethany, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty sure no-one ever said Snape never read Roald Dahl, so you have it here folks, lol


	4. A Little Surprise

Chapter 4  
A Little Surprise

_Severus’s friendship with Bethany grew stronger and stronger over that summer. She taught him so much; from how to preserve some of his potions ingredients a little better, for she knew he had tricks of his own, it didn’t hurt to learn a few more. She also taught Lucius Malfoy how to dance better – as the poor bloke came off as having two left feet, never mind having lessons, and he wanted to be able to dance with Narcissa Black, his fiancé._

_Bethany was a frequent visit to the Malfoy Manor, if she wasn’t doing her own errands and ventures with her family or other._

_“I think you’re starting to really like her, that is if you haven’t already,” Lucius teases one evening, after Bethany had gone home and Severus was in his room, sitting in the middle of his bed, trying to finish any last bits of homework, which was nearly sprawled about via the books and parchment as evident of that._

_“As a friend?” Severus replies weakly._

_Lucius laughs lightly. “No, way more than just a friend. She’s not fake, she likes your company, more than likes; she loves it, in fact. Her background has helped her in knowing not only the etiquettes of the High Society of our people, but gone as far as updating her knowledge in the lines and why we feel they are important to preserve. In turn, we find that, even though Australia is very mixed, so to speak, they’re not too far off in the same stances in ensuring their names and titles keep. Plus certain abilities and acceptances we have. Unlike that Mudblood!”_

_Severus felt a pang at that. He was still torn in his feelings toward Lily. She had acted like a complete bitch to him, until she realised what had happened and begged for him to accept his apology._

_“It was so, so stupid of me to say that, Sev! I wasn’t thinking!” she said to him._

_This was after Bethany had told Lily who she was putting down and called her an utter bitch who didn’t give a crap about anyone but herself! To attempt to prove Bethany wrong, Lily managed to get Severus alone._

_“I’m sorry.”_

_Severus could only nod. “Can you just leave me alone?”_

_Lily looked insulted by this. “But... I just said that I am sorry, isn’t that enough?”_

_“Enough for what? I asked for you for help, you closed the door on me, you said those words, saying you weren’t thinking, when in truth... that is how you really believe. How am I to process that? Please, if you really believe there is a friendship, I would like for you to keep your distance for now and respect that I have a lot going on right now.”_

_He turned and walked away, ignoring Lily’s calls and pleas to talk more._

_“I guess you’re right,” Severus says to Lucius._

_“I know I am right,” said Lucius with a small frown._

_“It’s just... she... she doesn’t fully know about me, but then... no-one really does... I hope,” Severus mentions, not looking at his friend and adopted brother. “I never even told Lily...”_

_Lucius’s sound was between a scoff and one of understanding, an equal in between._

_“Evans is like any other Muggle who’ve come in here with her style of thinking and beliefs! Bethany, on the other hand... give her a chance, when you’re ready to show more about yourself to her._

_“In case you hadn’t noticed, she hasn’t tried putting any moves on you since your inheritance, either.”_

_Severus did notice this._

_Though he couldn’t officially come into his Titles until he was seventeen, as well as his properties and wealth – all of which are magically sealed and safe with Abraxas as his legal guardian and overseer of those until Severus could take them on to his own shoulders; Severus was a Lord, and with that certain obligations._

_Including finding a suitable spouse._

_It hadn’t been fully blown out yet, which there was no doubt it would, especially when he goes back to Hogwarts in a week’s time, but some who have been in the know have been trying to strike up offers and so on._

_Severus wasn’t sure how to deal with the sudden interest that was upon him._

_Later that night, when he was under the covers, trying to sleep, he had become very, very restless._

_He thought of Lily for a moment, his cock stiffened a little at the visual of her curves and lushes red hair... he pictured her naked... and looking at him with her beaconing green eyes. In his head, she looked like she wanted him, positioning herself to allow him access._

_Yet as his hand went to go along his length._

_He bit his lower lip to suppress the sounds he was making as he guided his hand. Lily was kissing him, touching him, wanting him... until he looked right at her again... only to see the hazel eyes and brown hair of..._

_“Bethany...” he whispers._

_Her hand on his cock, her lips on his, it felt so, so real. Her nakedness against his own... oh... oh..._

_Then he saw the phallus in her hand, her beautiful features full of understanding, as she went to slip it behind him, already well lubed..._

_He could just imagine the feeling of it pushing into him, as his own penis went inside of her._

_By the time the image had finished he was sweaty, hands and sheets covered in his hot sticky and... with it... a realisation._

###

_As promised, Bethany waited for him on the platform of nine and three quarters. She beamed when she saw him and ignored the looks she was getting from her fellow House members when she hugged him._

_Severus blushed a little._

_“I have a surprise for you,” Bethany tells him, practically excited to reveal it._

_“Oh? What?”_

_“I’ll tell you on the train when we’ve pulled away from the platform,” she says before acknowledging Lord Malfoy and Lucius. “I hope you’ve been keeping well, Lord Malfoy.”_

_Abraxas gives a genuine smile of appreciation. The poor man had suffered a bad fall a few days before. Thankfully nothing too major, except to his knee, where he needed a cane to help keep balance. It as a boring brown thing, but it was sufficed well enough._

_“Thank you, Bethany,” he says, putting out a hand in a way to shake it._

_But Severus caught the piece of paper being transferred from Lord Malfoy’s hand to Bethany’s, who simply nodded with some sort of settlement between them._

_At least it looked that way._

_Few minutes later Severus and Bethany were in a compartment of their own, similar to the year before. Only, instead of sitting in opposite seats, they were right next to each other._

_Finally, the Hogwarts Express began to pull away and off they went, down the track._

_That was went Bethany pulls out a scrolled up parchment from her trunk and gave it to Severus._

_“What is this?” he asks._

_“Open it.”_

_Severus does, and as he unrolls it, a photo of Saffron, the palomino mare, slips out and on to his lip. He picks it up and looks at the gracefulness of the horse trotting about in the paddock, before looking at the parchment itself._

_“This is an ownership contract, or whatever it’s called,” he gapped when he read the details and information._

_“Lord Malfoy found out about the stables and... he saw, without you noticing he was there, how much Saffron and just being among the other horses and the stables was helping you, so... he spoke to my Grandpa... and well... if you accept, Saffron can officially be yours,” Bethany explained._

_Severus was so surprised by this. “The last I heard she was going to be Lily Evan’s horse! The negotiations and stuff her parents were doing with Mr  
Kingston.”_

_Bethany gave a small tiny grin of sorts. “Yeah... well... it does kind of help to when Mr Kingston’s favourite granddaughter was there to help persuade for other options.”_

_He looks at the parchment again, then back at the photo of Saffron._

_“She’s a beautiful horse,” he comments, with true admiration, and gratefulness. “I promise I will do what I can to make sure she is well kept.”_

_“You mean, you accept?”_

_“Do I need to sign anything?”_

_As if waiting for this, Bethany pulled out a quill and gave it to Severus._

_“Lord Malfoy has already signed the sections he needed to, being your guardian, but he wanted to make sure that you and you only are the one who owned her.”_

_Heart pounded a little, but it didn’t stop him from taking the quill and begin to place his name and signature = Lord Severus Snape-Prince upon the dotted lines..._

###

“She’s beautiful!”

Severus smiles bitter sweetly at the photo Zaria was holding.

“She was beautiful, indeed,” he agrees.

“Mum told me of what had happened to her, and I’m sorry.”

He takes his daughter’s hand and gives a gentle squeeze.

“Of all the horses I’ve been around and owned, even well after, Saffron was not only just my first horse and pet, but my favourite and companion when I needed it. A bit like you when you had Sammy during your tests and diagnosis and operations, and especially after we discovered that you and your mother couldn’t come back here... or I go to you.”

Zaria understood where he was coming from.

Sammy was a cat and a gift from Severus himself. Sort of a ‘even though I am not there, I am with you through this little cat’. Grey and white, he was Zaria’s comfort when things got tough on the poor girl.

It hurt when Sammy had been deliberately poisoned by the neighbour of the little house they were staying in, before they moved to the Greystone’s estate.  
The neighbour was a mean old man who hated Sammy on the spot and ignored the fact that he was Zaria’s ‘helper’. Going as far as saying Zaria should just hurry up and die... Bethany would have moved sooner if it wasn’t for the need to stay close to the medical facilities and therapies.

When the death of Sammy happened, Severus didn’t bloody care about any barring, he managed to send a nice little ‘messages’ to this grumpy old neighbour, where the old fart found his home covered in the smell of cat urine and faeces, and suddenly seeing ‘ghosts’ of Sammy. But what got the grumpy old neighbour was the ‘Howler’.

“HARM THE LITTLE GIRL NEXT DOOR AGAIN AND I WILL SEND YOU TO HELL! YOU ARE NO HELPER OF MINE! HURTING LITTLE GIRLS AND THEIR KITTIES IS NOT WHAT I AM ABOUT YOU DUNDERHEAD!”

For the old man claimed to be one of God’s Helpers and doing a service by ensuring little girls like Zaria behaved... by doing nasty things like killing her cat...? Which made no sense whatsoever to Severus at all.

It took a very long time for Zaria to get over the death of her Sammy Cat, much like it did for Severus when he lost Saffron that fateful day, when...

He shakes his head, not wanting to think of it right now. Just... just not now...


	5. Coming Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> italic = past  
> normal = present
> 
> Image 1 = Rhapsody  
> Image 2 = Magnum

Chapter 5  
Coming Together

_“I am major pissed off on the fact that someone had the nerve to swoop in on my horse!” Severus and Bethany overhear an irate Lily Evans to her friends._  
_“Did Mr Kingston give a reason?”_

_“He said someone needed the horse more than I did or some garbage excuse. I mean, who gives a horse to some nobody over an experienced horse rider?”_  
_“You do know Saffron wasn’t your horse to begin with, right,” Bethany couldn’t help piping up._

_Lily narrowed her eyes at Bethany. “How would you know?”_  
_“You forget whose grandfather owns the stables, where Saffron resides,” said Bethany. “Plus, due to the simple fact that Saffron was mine and Grandpa’s, before we agreed on whom the new, more deserving, owner ought to be. You weren’t the only one who had been giving offers for Saffron, Lily.”_

_Lily spies Bethany’s pinkie finger lightly linked with Severus’s, which was mostly obscured from view if one wasn’t paying close enough attention. Pursing her glossed lips, she looks at Severus._  
_“Wasn’t my apology enough?” she asks him._

_Severus presses his own lips together at this. “I wasn’t even expecting to be given Saffron,” he tells her. “She was gifted to me.”_  
_“You gifted him my horse!” Lily turns on Bethany._

_“That fact that you’re caring more about a horse, over someone you were supposedly friends to, especially after the events that have happened, which you practically spat in his face over, speaks more on who and what you really are!” Bethany fires back._

_“Did you sleep with her or something?” asked one of the other Gryffindor girls to Severus, who was part of Lily’s group of friends._  
_“No!” Severus says a little too quickly. “She’s my friend!”_

_“And even if he did sleep with me, it’s none of your business, Gina!” Bethany adds, however their linking fingers turned into holding hands._  
_“Your hands say otherwise!”_

_“We’re just holding hands, Rinehart,” Severus mutters._  
_Lily crinkled her nose at this. “But...” she goes to say, only to be cut off by Bethany._  
_“Get over yourself Lily. True friends don’t do what you have done, and spread the shit you’ve been doing to try and redeem yourself!”_  
_“What would that be? That I tried to be a friend and was rejected for it?”_

_“You didn’t help me when I needed it, Lily, and then insulted my mother for the situation we were living with,” Severus speaks up. “She was murdered, and you said to me that she deserved what she got.”_  
_“Is that why you’re holding hands?”_

_Severus turns and walks away, Bethany with him, as their hands hadn’t let go._  
_“Why are we holding hands?” Severus then asks after they were a far distance away from Lily and her friends, looking down at their interlocking fingers._  
_“I don’t know... I can’t even remember who went for who, or even why,” Bethany replies. “Is it bothering you?”_  
_Severus shakes his head. “No. I actually kinda like it.”_  
_A smile was on her lips. “I kinda like it, too.”_

###

_It wasn’t long after that when holding hands turned into kisses. A little unsure at first, but they weren’t deterred, as their little pecks grew into locking lips that was comfortable to them._

_Whispers and gossip flapped about over, including scoffs and scorn._  
_“She’s being with him it out of pity!”_  
_“He’s using her! No Slytherin would dare be with a Gryffindor! She’s not even British!”_

_What was interesting that majority of the comments was from Gryffindor, with some of it coming from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, only a handful from Slytherin._  
_People have tried to separate them, from girls finding out about Severus’s appending Lordship and whatever comes with it... there were even a few of the boys and young men who showed interest, too; the boys (and girls) of Gryffindor trying to get Bethany to see to her senses._

_At one point, where Severus and Bethany did have a very heated verbal argument, and they parted ways, much to the surprise of some, but smug for the majority who didn’t like the idea of them being together._  
_To try and drive it home, Sirius Black tried to worm on in with Bethany. ___  
_“I’d rather take my chances with a Drop Bear!” Bethany would tell him with disgust._

_“But, you’d be nice and loose for me...”_  
_That earned him a nice slap across the face._  
_Sirius wasn’t impressed with that, so he went on a different tactic..._

_Severus remembered that night vividly. He had received a note from Bethany, or at least, he thought it was Bethany, saying she wanted to talk things over and to meet her at the Shrieking Shack, detailing a tunnel she had found that led to it, and how to bypass the Whomping Willow._  
_He had missed Bethany like crazy, and he suspected she did too, but they were deliberately kept apart; much to Lucius Malfoy’s dislike upon speaking to him over the matter. Lucius and Abraxas Malfoy were one of the few that were approving of the pair, and simply advised to take a breather and if things were meant to be, then they will find a way back to each other._

_Taking this as a sign, Severus grabbed his cloak and quickly slips out unseen to meet with Bethany..._  
_He more than just met up with Bethany that night!_  
_Bethany was in the Shrieking Shack, waiting for Severus, because she, herself, got a note to meet him, with the same details. Only to be met with a very, very surprised Remus Lupin. He told her she had to leave and that it wasn’t safe for her._  
_By the time Severus got there, he was hearing growls and screams, and enters to see Bethany trying to get to the trapdoor, with a werewolf holding on to her ankles and her clothes were ripped, trying to..._

_A sudden flash from Severus’s wand was enough to have the beast let go of Bethany and she scrambled toward him and the trapdoor. It was then when James Potter showed up and pushed them to leave immediately._  
_They went straight to the Hospital Wing; thankfully Bethany hadn’t sustained anything that would cause her to become infected with lycanthropy._  
_What didn’t help was how Dumbledore handled the situation, forcing them into silence over Remus Lupin’s condition and brushing the entire thing off as nothing more than a prank._

_“But... Black deliberately set it up!” Bethany whispered._  
_“Perhaps if you accepted the offer to date him, he might not have,” was all Dumbledore said, before dismissing them._

_Neither wanted to go to their dorms, they didn’t care if they were caught as they walked through the corridors, taking secret passages along the way, until they found themselves on the seventh floor and entering a quiet little cottage style room that just appeared; a simple bed with a fireplace and a little bathroom through a door._

_“I want to kill them for what they did!” Severus says, getting her to look at him, cupping her cheek._  
_Bethany stepped in and put her arms around his waist, face into his chest, tears rolling._  
_“I was scared of more than that,” she sniffs. “He told me to get out of there! He had no idea that I would be there, literally trying to get me to the trapdoor to leave, but...”_

_“You mean Lupin was trying to help you?”_  
_Bethany looks up at him. “Yes. He had no idea what Sirius had done, and... was just as afraid for of what he would do and... well... the beast came out before I could get to the trapdoor and... you saw for yourself.”_  
_Severus didn’t need to voice on what the werewolf was going to do._

_“I thought I was going to lose you...” he confesses. “I love you, Beth, and I don’t know what I would do if I lost you!”_  
_Bethany moves her arms up to be around his shoulders and back, and places a firm kiss on the lips._  
_“I love you, Severus. I can’t even remember why or what we argued over, and... after what happened tonight... I don’t want something so minuscule to be the reason to not be with you.”_  
_“Neither do I.”_

_They started kissing, which shortly led to them moving over to the bed, where they started to caress and grope, until their clothing began to go missing from their bodies, exploring certain areas with more confidence than they thought they would._  
_Neither had sex before, they knew, which was perhaps what made it more special when Bethany parted her legs for Severus and, though both nervous and with some fumbling, feel him push all the way inside of her, taking both their virginities at the same time._

_It would be the first of many moments like it, not all of them ending with sex, but enough to have the other feel very much connected._  
_Confessing and opening many secrets, desires and more, and with each one revealed, the deeper they were invested._

_After their first time in having sex, their relationship was back with a vengeance; proving as much when Bethany flat out hexed Sirius Black and James Potter after sending Severus flying upside down in the air after an OWL exam._

_Lily really showed her true colours by then, and whatever friendship that may have been between her and Severus was no more._  
_Though it did give him a slight pang, Severus didn’t dwell on it, he had Bethany to get him through the loss... if one can call it that._

###

“Are you okay, Dad?”  
Severus snaps out of his thoughts and looks at his daughter, all ready in her riding gear.  
“I am now that we’re both ready to go to the stables,” he says, with a smile.  
Zaria grins.

When Robert Kingston was near on Death’s door, he set up everything to allow for Severus to be able to take over Kingston’s Equine, Farmyard and Animal Sanctuary. He may have been barred from being the Bethany and Zaria, but he wasn’t barred from seeing his Grandfather-in-law, whom he kept in close relation with and really helped with the property when things were getting too much for the old man.

Because he was family, it was enough for Robert to leave the place to Severus, knowing that Bethany would understand the reasons – he needed someone he could trust, and because of the circumstances, it was still Bethany’s, but, it was Severus’s too.  
It was of no surprise that Zaria would have taken up horse riding.

They soon arrived and were greeted by varying staff members, some of them happy to have finally met the famous great-granddaughter to Robert Kingston, Zaria.

It was amazing how the place was once just for horses, up until Bethany’s grandfather rescued a pair of starving goats from some neglectful owners, which spun it into a place where animals that have been rescued can be kept and looked after as best as possible. There have even been a couple of cases where birds, squirrels and someone’s pet mouse, had been taken in for medical needs.

It was a place that Severus kept well away from the chaos of his life at Hogwarts. Not many knew of his real love for animals. He learned to respect them, even in his potions prep where certain sections of animals were required, he was careful with the cutting and dicing, even mashing. It annoyed him when some people cannot have the same respect and care, even toward the plant based ingredients.

After doing some quick rounds, Severus took Zaria to a particular paddock; her reaction was one of surprise and joy at the same time.  
“Oh, my gosh, Dad! Is that...?”  
Slowly walking over to where Severus and Zaria were was a stunning steel grey gelding.

“Rhapsody!” she calls in her well trained tone, but aired with delight as she touched the horse’s nose when he reached them.  
“There was no way I couldn’t have him stay all the way over on the other side of the world,” Severus tells her. “He passed through quarantine yesterday.”  
“Can I get him saddled up, please?”  
“Why else would you be here, wearing your gear?”  
It didn’t take long before Severus and Zaria were riding their horses, Rhapsody and Magnum; a chocolate to dark brown gelding.

Severus then saw someone he knew, and gestured to Zaria that he was going to go over to greet them, steering Magnum over to the fencing where three people were standing on the other side. He gets off the horse just metres from it, walks the rest of the way, with Magnum beside him.  
Zaria guided her own horse over, unable to fight off her curiosity.

The woman of the three was giving her father’s horse attention, while the man and boy, who looked to be the same age as Zaria, were chatting to Severus. They all had white blond hair and dressed in sophisticated clothing.  
“You must be Zaria,” the man says, peering over just as Zaria unmounted and joined them, though nervous.  
“Were you expecting me to be the Queen of England?”

The woman laughs at the response. “She’s definitely got yours and Bethany’s humour, Severus.”  
“Pretty sure she’s always had it, especially since she somehow turned Draco’s hair purple,” says the man, causing the boy’s eyebrows to furrow and look at him as if he was serious.  
“Are you Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy?” Zaria asks with curiosity, trying to place them in her memories, or even stories from her parents.  
“Indeed, we are,” says Lucius Malfoy; “This here is Draco.”  
“Did you really turn my hair purple?” Draco demands.

“Probably because I didn’t know how to make it pink or orange,” Zaria replies, shrugging. “I don’t know. Did I?”  
“Yes, you did, you were two, Draco had just turned three and you got into Narcissa’s beauty cabinet and you both looked like human canvases, and when saw caught you, you just dumped some hair potions on Draco, causing his hair to turn purple,” Severus explains.

“Stayed that way for a week, before it started to fade and grow out,” Narcissa was grinning fondly at this memory.  
“No wonder why I get called Violet every now and again!”  
“Sounds better than plum or grape,” says Zaria.  
“Are you going to be attending Hogwarts?” Draco decides to say to move away from the subject of his hair being purple.  
“Yes,” Zaria replies.

“Considering there are no other Wizarding schools in the United Kingdom, Draco,” Severus says fairly.  
“Do you know if you’re going to be in Slytherin?”  
“I wouldn’t know,” Zaria looks at her father with slight worry.  
“I don’t think it matters in the end,” Severus says, giving an assuring look to Zaria, and then looks at Draco.  
“What do you mean?”

“Because Zaria’s mother, Bethany, was in Gryffindor,” Severus answers.  
“Slytherin’s Lioness, as she was fondly remembered as,” Lucius speaks with tone to match his liking toward the late wife of Severus Snape.  
This surprised Draco. “You never said she was a Gryffindor! Are you sure she wasn’t a Slytherin?”  
“Pretty sure, Draco,” said Severus.

“How come she was known as Slytherin’s Lioness?” Zaria was curious to know, petting Rhapsody gently on the shoulder as he nudged her a bit.  
“She fiercely defended the Slytherins, or at least the noble names, against those who didn’t want to understand the way things were, or are, if people remembered them. Particularly against her fellow Gryffindors. She wasn’t afraid to hold back,” said Narcissa.

“I still remember when she made that bowl of punch float in the air and drop right in front of a pair of guests who were very rude at our wedding, covering them and drenching them head to toe in orange, do you remember that, my dear?” Lucius chuckled.  
“Oh, very much, it was rather satisfying seeing Aunt Lyra and Cousin Miranda squealing and trying to figure out who did it to them,” Narcissa nods.

“Anyway, Bethany was a Gryffindor, but the type of Gryffindor who also equalled in being a Slytherin,” says Lucius.  
“I didn’t know that was even a possibility,” says Draco.  
“That is because such people, such as Zaria’s mother, are rare. Well, perhaps not that rare, but given how things were, and perhaps still are now, having someone like her was just to hope that another would step up like she did,” Severus tells him.

“So it would be okay to be Sorted into a different house?” asks Zaria.  
Severus puts his free arm around the back of her shoulders.  
“Yes.”


	6. Zaria Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set in the past, just not done in Italic = I am still having trouble doing an entire page, or section in that font style, still doing the painstaking way of one line at a time...

Chapter 6  
Zaria Hope

“Severus, I need to tell you something.”  
Severus looks up from the lists of potions he had been requested to brew for the Dark Lord, Voldemort.  
He could see the nervousness in his wife’s eyes.

“What is it?” he asks her, holding a hand out for her to come closer.  
Bethany bit her lower lip. “I’m... I’m pregnant.”  
It took a moment for the words to sink in.  
“Really?”  
Bethany nods, nearly afraid.

But whatever doubts she was feeling was pushed away the moment Severus embraced her and kissed her on the forehead and then the lips.  
“Is that why you were so nervous?” he asks her.  
“Yes, I thought you’d be mad,” Bethany says.

“Why would I be mad?” Severus questions, cupping her face. “Surprised, perhaps, but... no... we both did talk of having children someday, hadn’t we?”  
“We have, but, I thought it would be inconvenient to you, with everything going on right now.”  
Severus could understand where Bethany was coming from.

Upon turning eighteen, Severus had joined the ranks of Voldemort’s army, known as Death Eaters. It was not something he had planned to do. Not by a long shot.

He and Bethany had just been married not too long before, in the nice autumn of October, much to the dissuasion of a few ‘well meaning’ persons, namely one Albus Dumbledore, who believed that Bethany could have chosen someone of much better calibre and suitability; never mind that Severus and Bethany were very well matched for each other, had the blessings of Bethany’s family, and in particular Abraxas Malfoy, being Severus’s former guardian and still with such liking toward Bethany.

Becoming a Death Eater was seemingly more forced upon him, rather than him being able to what he originally planned to do, which was travel with his new wife and, possibly, move to Australia, where he had been offered a brilliant opportunity that he didn’t want to pass up. They had been so close to having everything sorted out and ready to go... until some twist of fate ripped the dream out from under them, when Severus was suddenly facing the Dark Lord, with his ranks, receiving the Dark Mark after completing the initiation, knowing that the circumstances that led to it was one of more to keep Bethany safe as possible.

“Beth, look at me,” Severus says to her.  
She does.  
“No child of ours is an inconvenience, my love,” he sooths, tracing a finger along her cheek, and then placing the hand on her abdomen. “You’re giving me one of the best gifts imaginable, and I will be forever proud to know that I am going to be the father of your child. Our child.”  
He meant every word.

###

The pregnancy had been up and down for them, with the morning sickness, which potions could only do so much to subside it, and the heartburn! Ugh!

Severus was there as much as he could for Bethany, even holding her hair back when the morning sickness – which wasn’t even in the morning, but somewhere in the evenings – got too much. Gentle massages over the growing belly, talking to his growing son or daughter, looking forward to meeting him or her, which would bring smiles to his wife.

“You’re going to be a good dad, Severus,” she tells him.  
“I hope so,” Severus replies.

Bethany would brush the strands of her husband’s hair, looking at him with her hazel eyes, full of love and care. She could see just how much he wanted to prove to her that he was worthy of this role, how different he wanted to be from his own father. Severus did have his worries, only to have them eased by her words, and that of another excited father to be, Lucius Malfoy.

The slightly older Slytherin was thrilled to learn of being a father together with Severus. Though their children would be a number of months apart, as Narcissa was due for early June, while Bethany was due for early to mid October, it didn’t matter.  
Small joys in a world so grim.

However, someone wasn’t too thrilled over the news of the Snapes having a child. Going as far as sending gift baskets with nice homemade items, such as muffins and strawberry cheesecake. Nothing was detected at first, and the notices were all from people who they knew, and they knew that these items were coming... so there wasn’t anything to worry about.

Until one night when Bethany was 20 weeks along and waking up with massive pains, and saw strings of blood in her underwear and coming out when she went to the toilet.

“ _ **Severus!**_ ” she screams.  
Healers were immediately called to Prince Manor, or Snape Manor, and there was a flurry of getting Bethany seen to.  
“You have started to dilate and the baby is starting to weaken,” one Healer explained.

Bethany was in tears, clinging to her husband’s hand and sobbing, and begging for them to save their unborn baby.  
“Have you eaten anything out of the ordinary? Or been in contact with anything that could have caused you and your baby harm?”  
“I...” Bethany was now trying to recall everything.

“We have been receiving food items from well wishers,” Severus tells them. “There wasn’t anything found in them, and I checked them myself.”  
Upon requesting to see these baskets came a shocking discovery. There was nothing detected in the food, because it wasn’t the food, at least not until the baskets were received by the persons they were meant for, it was the baskets the food was placed in! The trick was that once all checks were done on the food, the basket would then slowly release the poisons into the food, because the checking spells is what sets off the release.

It was at that moment Severus knew, but he couldn’t leave his wife just yet, not when she needed him the most right now.  
The Healers were able to stop the dilation and the bleeding, and ensured that their baby would be able to regain strength and continue growing as much as possible.  
“We cannot guarantee that she will get to term, but the longer she stays in there, the better her chances are of surviving,” they were told.

“She? You mean we’re having a girl?” Severus says.  
Bethany saw the flash of a smile on her husband’s face, and loving and hopeful eyes upon her belly.  
“Yes,” said the Healer. “But right now, we need to concentrate on the next number of weeks. Bethany, you’re on bed rest for the rest of this pregnancy, minimal movement. Light walks around the house if you can manage, as it would help keep your muscles from going too constrict from not moving.

“We will be checking in once a week to see how things are progressing, but of course if anything arises that causes you concern, do not hesitate to send us a message. Better safe than sorry.”  
When the Healers had finally left, Severus saw Bethany breaking into sobs again; he pulled her close to him and comforted her.  
“I don’t want to lose her,” she sniffs and breathes between her words.

“We’re not going to lose her, my love,” Severus tells her tenderly and strongly, his hand going on Bethany’s tummy, where their daughter was still nestled within. “You are both going to get through this pregnancy, and she’s going to be born ready to fight, just like she already is now.”  
Bethany looks at him; Severus presses his lips against her forehead and firms his hold around her.  
“She’s a lioness, like her mother.”

###

Every day, to every week that followed was filled with nervousness. But with every week to pass was another sigh of relief for the soon to be parents.

Between those tentative days and weeks, Severus was run ragged. He had dobbed the ‘ever so wonderful’ Albus Dumbledore into the Death Eaters for his attack toward his family, and a few other mothers in waiting, after investigating fully before bringing it forward. Turning out it wasn’t just any targets, they were specifically chosen, including a couple of members of the Order, Alice Longbottom and Lily Potter among them.

He didn’t care on what had happened in the past, no-one, not even Lily and James Potter, deserved that!  
But of course, even when the evidence was blaringly obvious, the Ministry did bugger all, and Dumbledore got away with it.

“You really ought to reconsider on making an enemy out of me, Severus,” he says to the pissed off father to be.  
“Oh no, Albus, it is you who has made an enemy out of me! Touch my family again, in any shape or form, and I will ruin you!” Severus seethes.  
“Is that a threat?”  
“No! _It’s a promise! _”__

___Then, somewhere in the late hours of the night, Bethany felt a pop, followed by a sudden gush from between her legs._  
“I think my waters broke,” she says, sounding a little panicked.  
Severus, seeing the clear to transparent pink stains upon the fitted sheet of their bed, calmed her as best as possible before quickly sending word to the Healers.  
It all happened so fast, yet so slow, like a paradox in time just decided to smack into that moment. 

__Bethany’s waters had, indeed, broken open, and she was starting contractions. The Healers gave her potions that would help her to keep calm and her blood pressure from going haywire, they also injected a special potion into Bethany that would go straight to the baby, so is to help with the lungs, as she was 33 weeks along, and the lungs were the last thing to fully develop within the womb._ _

__It was the only one of a few potions that had to be taken by a muggle style needle – even the purebloods accepted that one, if it meant their babies would have a good chance of life.  
Severus didn’t leave Bethany’s side, holding her hand, pressing cool compress on her head and neck._ _

___“You’re doing just fine, Bethany,” one Healer encouraged, with tone to match. “That’s it; breathe in, and as you are breathing out, use that to help with the pushing, you’re nearly there.”_  
Bethany really clenched her teeth and let out a squeal of real pain as she felt the ring of fire opening up to allow the head to pass through. In a matter of seconds, to perhaps a minute or two, the baby girl was fully out.  
But there was no sound. 

___The new parents watched with nervousness as the Healers worked to try and get this newborn to breathe, for she was completely blue against the white to slowly turning pinkie skin._  
A sudden squawk like sound came up, followed by a real set of lungs, though raspy.  
The newborn was wrapped into a blanket and placed right into Bethany’s eager arms. 

__“We will have to take her to St Mungo’s to be placed into a special crib to help her,” they were told. “You’re going to be coming with us, Mum, as you need to be checked over, too, plus we need to get that placenta out.”  
“We will give you a few moments alone before we do that,” another added._ _

___Severus peered lovingly at this precious baby that was within her mother’s arms._  
Fine black hair, tiny fingers peeping out from the blanket she was wrapped in.  
Bethany then gently went to pass their newborn to her husband, so he could have his first hold.  
“Meet your, Daddy.” 

___Nervous as he was, Severus took her and held her close to him._  
“I have the perfect name for her, if you approve of it,” he then says, gently taking a tiny hand into his own forefinger and thumb.  
“What is it?” 

___“Zaria Hope,” he replies, looking at Bethany, then back at their new daughter, explaining; “Zaria is another name for Sarah, meaning Princess; it also means rose or blooming flower, in Arabic; in Russian, it means sunrise, or dawn, which is very appropriate as she was born just as the dawn broke. Plus it is a variation to Zorya, the Slavic goddesses, sisters, who represent the morning and evening stars._  
“Hope, because there is no other word, or way, to describe on this experience in having her finally here.”  
The pair had been looking up so many names that would fit, but none came up, until this suggestion. 

__Bethany more than just approved, she loved the strong name for their daughter, and impressed on how Severus took the time to really look up the name.  
Shortly after, Bethany and Zaria were taken to St Mungo’s, where further checks and care could be carried out, Severus would join them in a little while._ _


	7. Flashes of Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Image 1 = Manus Masked Owl, Miro  
> Image 2 = Gunner the German Shepherd

Chapter 7  
Flashes of Memories

To this day Severus could still remember how tiny Zaria was, especially in the special crib she was in. There had been much protest about cribs such as this one, many dubbing it ‘muggle technology’, forgetting that, while it was a copy of the kind muggle healers had for their premature and sick babies, there were plenty of differences. Also that up until a few years ago, there wasn’t anything that could fully help such children and so many mothers and fathers wanted to have something, anything, that would give their new children a chance.

Zaria wasn’t attached to any wires, but she still had a feeding tube down her nose to help ensure she was able to be fed, as she wasn’t much able to suck on her mother’s breast for a good week and a half, as her mouth muscles weren’t too sure on what they were meant to do and how to get a good latch, which did cause some distress to Bethany thinking she wasn’t good enough, and believing she wasn’t producing enough, which wasn’t the case, given that once her milk came in, (three days after Zaria was born), she was giving plenty.

It was after some reassurance and encouragement that helped Bethany find her stride and able to feed Zaria, but there were the times where Severus gave her the bottle in order for Bethany to rest or have a little time to herself, especially when the day came for their daughter to finally be allowed to go home.

Severus didn’t know there was such a thing as being to fall in love again, but every time he was with his daughter, his heartstrings were pulled and tugged upon.  
Not long after Zaria was able to go home, however, did the troubles start with the girl’s breathing and blacking out. In and out of St Mungo’s they would go, trying to get Healers to see reason to their concerns. Always given some explanation... without fully examining the girl, or only partly.

They couldn’t understand why they were being dismissed.  
There were even the words ‘new parents worrying about a little cough’ floating about the wards, which really irked Severus to no end. He and Bethany knew there was something wrong, and no-one was listening!  
Yet throughout the back and forth trips, Zaria was a very happy little girl, already showing her intelligence, her cheekiness, her ability to sneak off with her Daddy’s jam drops...

When the decision came to get in contact with the Healers in Australia, (and a small team visiting the Snape’s home), and finally looking to be getting somewhere, someone was putting up a huge stink over the ordeal, causing issue after issue.

The Healers who had come from Australia told them straight off that if nothing was done they would certainly face losing Zaria, and couldn’t understand the fuss being caused, wondering whether whoever was creating it really cared about a child’s actual welfare.

Bethany made light that she had been getting threatening messages toward herself and Zaria, which was news to Severus, asking why she kept it from him.  
“Because we were already starting to make plans on leaving the UK, I didn’t want to make it seem that they were getting to us.”  
Severus couldn’t be angry with his wife’s want to try and keep things at peace; he was more upset that people still wanted them away from each other.

The decision was made that day for Bethany to pack for herself and Zaria to go with the Healers.  
Severus would join them in a few days, tying up some loose ends that had to be sorted out, before ‘disappearing’.  
Unfortunately, this never got to be, for someone found out and that is how the many years apart ended up being in place.  
Severus and Bethany did their best with the Australian Ministry, including the ICW, to push the blockade down so Severus could leave the United Kingdom, in order to be with his wife and daughter in Australia.

Even stating that unless there were strong evidential grounds, it was illegal to place such a thing upon a person. The British Ministry tried to bring up the excuse of Severus being a Death Eater, only to be pointed out that it was quashed and strongly written in records that the man had been spy and working for the ‘good guys’ since even before he joined the ranks, he just didn’t know he was going to be right in the inner circle when he did join, but it seemed to help... to a degree.

The only win the Snapes were able to get was that there was the ability to exchange letters and gifts, plus that there was to be a mandatory physical exchange three times a year for two weeks! The visitations couldn’t be in either the United Kingdom, or Australia, however.

Australia didn’t trust the British Ministry to deny Bethany and Zaria the ability to return to where they needed to be for Zaria’s wellbeing; whereas the British, (and this really pissed Severus off), didn’t want Severus to become a citizen with his wife and daughter, because they “couldn’t let a Death Eater get away”... which was hypocrisy in so many ways it wasn’t even funny.

But it was the best that could be done.  
So, Severus wasn’t fully denied in being in his daughter’s life, but he still felt robbed of many experiences with her, even with the ones he was able to have with her and Bethany.  
What didn’t help was whenever he and his wife set the dates into the calendar; Dumbledore would somehow interfere, telling Severus that he was needed and that his family had to wait, finding some blasted a way to manipulate things.

When Bethany went to the persons who’ve been helping the family about this after two straight years of them being shirked and messed around with, a rule was put in place that if anyone denies the family access to each other, or doesn’t come up with a compensate set of dates in exchange for the ones that were already in place, then that person, or persons would be met with harsh penalties, as the legalities on the situation were pathetic enough that it shouldn’t have been like this in the first place.

“No wonder why you lot are seen as the backwards country!” one member of the Australian Ministry speaks to the British sector.  
After that happened, Severus, Bethany and Zaria were able to keep their appointed rendezvous to wherever they wished to go.  
Severus wasn’t going to forget the first time he got to hold his baby girl, though not a baby any more, close to him, not wanting to let go.  
That was when they went to Disneyland in California.

Not the first place for Severus to think of ever being, but for Zaria, who was six years old, and heavily into Disney by then, it was well worth it to see his little girl smiling and looking heaps healthier from when she was four years old and constantly pale with bags under her eyes.

Even though it meant riding the Dumbo merry-go-round and being convinced to wear a set of Mickey Mouse ears, much to Bethany’s amusement – which earned him a little extra love making that night when convinced to wear them for her enjoyment once Zaria was in bed asleep.

The trips didn’t all go to Disneyland.  
In a way, being forced to meet outside of the countries they were stuck in helped in expanding Zaria’s conception of the world, as well as their own.  
She especially loved the safaris they were able to go on in parts of Africa, the trip to Machu Picchu, Peru and there was no denying that no-one wanted to stop the 11 day cruise they took through Scandinavia and Russia.

Many fond memories to be had in amongst the gloom of their situation.

###

The rest of the summer had been filled with much catching up and rekindling. When it came to Zaria’s thirteenth birthday she was treated to a day of pampering at a day spa, as she had a small spell two days prior and wanted to help her feel a little more better and distracted from the crappy feeling she had.  
He also gave Zaria her own owl, a Manus Masked owl, (whom she named Miro), which flew in with a special bundle from all of her friends back in Australia.

The final gift was the service dog Bethany had been working on getting for Zaria, one who is trained to respond to Zaria in case she goes into any of her spells and is able to be around any animal, including horses, owls and cats; a German Shepherd named Gunner.

Severus literally had to go over the Headmaster’s head when the old wizard tried to deny the dog access to the school, pointing out that even magic folk require service animals, and it was not only discrimination, but illegal to deny aid to those who need them, animals included – one that seemed to be adopted by muggle law, not that this is acknowledged much.

He even pointed out that he provided the means for a werewolf to not only attend as a student, but return to teach!  
“You may have me stuck to this accursed job and whatever shit you’ve gotten, but you will not deny my daughter what she needs, as it was your insisting that has her attending in the first place, instead of listening to what would have been a better solution, because it doesn’t fit with your ideals! Or whoever is licking your bum crack!  
“Because I know there are some things even you cannot get around! The dog is going to accompany Zaria during her attendance, and if there is any deliberate attempt to harm Gunner, I will hold you personally responsible!”

Dumbledore did question on how the dog would cope on the train, as he wasn’t going to allow Zaria to skip that journey, only for Severus to walk away.

###

It didn’t go amiss when it was time to be at Platform nine and three-quarters so is to be in time to catch the Hogwarts Express.  
Some were surprised to see the Potions Master, just as astonished that he was accompanying a new student who didn’t have her House colours yet, some even muttered and questioned over the fact there was a dog.

Severus ignored this as he helped Zaria find a place on the train, placing the trunk where it needed to be and setting Miro’s cage safely beside the trunk, while Gunner settled himself on the seat next to where Zaria would be sitting, positioned nice and proper, waiting for his Mistress to sit down, before he, too fully sat.

“I will see you later this evening,” Severus tells her. “You do not need to take the boats with the first years, as it was explained, you will be sorted after them, though.”  
“I know, Dad.”  
Zaria was trying to keep calm.

Severus could only hope that this particular transition will go smoothly for his daughter, and continued to hope as he was with the other parents and guardians watching the scarlet steam engine pull away from the platform, carrying the mass of students toward Scotland and on to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


	8. Questioned

Chapter 8  
Questioned

Zaria was subconsciously patting Gunner when she heard the door opening, causing her to look up from the book she was reading.  
“I thought I heard about a dog coming on board!” spoke the girl with bushy brown hair and bucked teeth.  
Gunner lazily raised his head to see the girl, but placed it back down on his owner’s lap.  
“You are aware that dogs aren’t allowed at Hogwarts, aren’t you?”

Zaria rolls her eyes. “Yet the Keeper of Keys, Rubeus Hagrid has a boarhound named Fang,” she points out.  
“That’s different; Fang doesn’t belong to a student.”  
“You did see the vest when you decided to come in here to investigate on flittering words about?” Zaria then says, indicating Gunner’s special vest.  
“Do you have vision impairment?”

“Not all service dogs are for the visually impaired, some are trained for different needs according to the person they’re going to be working with. Gunner, my dog, is trained to be able to pick up any changes that may occur with me and do what is required of him; my Mum had been working in acquiring Gunner, after she died, Dad managed to do what was needed.  
“Gunner is more than a pet, he is a worker, and last I checked, the exception to the rule. Plus I heard that not everyone has a toad, a cat or an owl around here.”

“You shouldn’t be allowed special treatment, the dog is a form of special treatment,” says the girl.  
“Would you say that to someone who is visually impaired?”  
“That’s different!”  
“Your ignorance in medical aid, which includes service dogs, is really trying my patience. Gunner is here to make sure that I don’t die! So please leave me alone!”  
Sensing her mood, the German Shepherd nudged his snout against Zaria’s hand; Zaria responds by patting him.

“What are you reading?” the girl then asks.  
“It, by Stephen King,” Zaria answers, not looking up now, wanting this pest to piss off.  
“You shouldn’t be allowed to read that!”  
“My Dad doesn’t seem to have a problem, as he saw me reading the Green Mile, also by Stephen King, heard that it’s been adapted into a movie now. Just because your parents won’t let you read certain things, doesn’t make it the same for others.  
“Now, if you are done, I suggest you go and find your friends and leave me be.”

“Are you being a nuisance, Granger?” speaks a drawl like voice.  
‘Granger’ turns to see the boy with white blond hair.  
“I heard some new student was already breaking rules by brining a dog with her!”  
“And questioning her choice of reading material?”  
“It’s okay, Draco, if she wants to be a dunderhead, let her be one,” Zaria speaks.

Hermione Granger looks right at Zaria. “What did you just call me? And you know Malfoy?”  
“I called you a dunderhead, and yes I know Draco, what’s it to you?”  
“How?”  
“By knowing her father,” said Draco, a little amused by the bushy haired girl’s surprise. “I think you ought to go find Potter and Weasley, now.”  
Hermione, looking rather indignant, walked away.

“So that’s Hermione Granger?” Zaria comments.  
“The one and only irritating know-it-all,” Draco confirms, now standing where Hermione was seconds before.  
“Well, she clearly doesn’t know it all,” says Zaria.  
“How have you been keeping?” he then asks her.  
“So far so good.”  
“We’ve got another three hours or so left, so you might want to get into your school robes,” Draco suggests.  
Zaria checked her watch, and was surprised on how much time had passed.  
“Thanks for that,” she says.

###

Finding a carriage that travels to the castle wasn’t hard, as Draco Malfoy made sure that Zaria and Gunner got one. Naturally Gunner got some looks of interests.  
“You would think they had never seen a dog before,” Zaria mutters.  
“Not at Hogwarts they haven’t, unless you count that big oaf, Hagrid’s dog,” Draco replies.  
“What is with the dog anyway?” Gregory Goyle asks.

“I was born with a faulty heart and lungs, much to the point where I had to go to Australia to get it fixed as best as possible, but even with the operation, and I might need to have another one further down the track if things go a certain way, I still have the tendency to either have trouble breathing, or stop breathing all together, or my heart can just over pulsate or do something stupid and I can collapse,” Zaria explains.

“Operation? Isn’t that a muggle thing?” Goyle makes a face.

“Some elements were, or are, adopted from muggle, yes, but all adapted to aid the magical side of things. But, you will find that not everything is straight and forward when it comes to medical stuff, not everything can be done with a simple flick of the wand or a potion; something the Healers here failed in their duty of care, to the point where if nothing was done I would have been severely crippled or dead!”

“Pretty sure Snape would have gone on a killing spree if that happened,” said Draco.  
“Probably,” Zaria agrees.  
She couldn’t help but be amazed when she sees the castle looming over upon the approach.

Professor McGonagall met up with Zaria, when she entered the Entrance Hall, and led her to the little room that would lead her to the top of the Great Hall.  
“Your father was rather worried when he heard of the delay due to the Dementors,” she made mention.  
“I bet he was,” said Zaria, unsurprised. “I am sure he will be pleased to know that I am fine, no Patronus required.”  
McGonagall saw the humour.  
She explains what Zaria already knew and once all was said and done, the girl was left to wait.

The first years came in and were soon exiting out the other door into the Great Hall, where the Sorting Ceremony was conducted and the tattered old Sorting Hat sang its song, before placing the new arrivals into each of the four houses; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.  
When the last first year was sorted, Professor Albus Dumbledore rose and announced that there was still one more student to be placed, as she was transferred from a different country and had enrolled into Hogwarts.  
“Please welcome Zaria Snape.”

The reception was rather mixed as Zaria made her way out of the chamber, Gunner at her heels, and to the stool with the Sorting Hat.  
The hat itself didn’t have to over think too hard on where to place her;  
“GRYFFINDOR!”

Severus had a small private smile to himself; he knew his daughter would be in the same house as her mother once was.  
Still undeterred by the assorted responses, Zaria made her way to the Gryffindor table and took her seat; Gunner obediently dropping close to her.  
The feast was announced and the array of delicious food appeared.

“I don’t mean to pry...” says the one and only Hermione Granger.  
“But you’re going to,” Zaria interjects.  
“Are you somehow related to Professor Snape?” the girl continues on as if she hadn’t heard Zaria’s sarcasm.  
“Yes, he’s my Dad.”  
“Since when did Snape ever have a kid? Let alone have any woman allow him to touch her to have a kid?” Ron Weasley crinkles his face up.  
Zaria was not amused by that. “The woman you’re referring to happens to be my Mum, who, up until a few months ago was Dad’s wife.”  
“What happened? She had enough of his overbearing greasy hair?”  
“No, she died,” Zaria glares at the redhead, who’s face went red at her reply.

“You shouldn’t make a rude assumption like that Ron,” said Hermione.  
“Oh... so much like you and your assumptions over my service dog and questioning the legitimacy of him being with me?” Zaria snips as her brows rose. “Or why I was reading a book that didn’t seem to meet your approval?”  
This shut Hermione up.

Zaria really enjoyed the food; she even made sure Gunner wasn’t missing out by giving him bits of sausage, rewards for being a good and patient dog – and getting frowns from Hermione, (and a few others), every time.  
When the feast ended, the notices and announcements were made before the students were all dismissed.

“Where are you going?” Hermione asks Zaria with scrutiny when the new girl was heading toward the dungeons, where the Slytherins were going.  
“If you must know, Zaria will not be in the Gryffindor Tower, instead she will be within her own room in my quarters,” said the voice of Severus Snape from behind the girl with bushy hair. “Now I suggest you move along, Miss Granger.”  
Hermione scampered off toward the Grand Stairs, while Severus guided Zaria to the dungeons.

“I couldn’t help noticing the disproval she was displaying toward Gunner,” Severus makes mention.  
Zaria gives a light snuff like sound; “Trying to tell me I was breaking rules, and showed ignorance on top of it.”  
They reach the location of where Severus’s quarters, which wasn’t too far from his office.

“Miss Granger can be very bright, but does think a little too highly of herself, trying to best at everything, save for a few exceptions, and seems to think that she’s the bees knees. There are other students with similar to same personas, of course, but being that Granger is the one in your year and also same House as you, best to grin and bear where you can.”

“How about knocking her down a peg or two in the process?” Zaria inquires with a small grin.  
Severus chuckles. “You have my backing.”

The quarters were pretty straight forward, a simple living area with kitchenette and dining area with four rooms – one the bathroom, one Snape’s office and brewing room, (outside of the main office and brewing room), and two bedrooms, Severus’s and Zaria’s.

“I am guessing there isn’t much here because it’s been the holidays until now?” she comments.  
Severus nods. “I do make a habit of making sure nothing is left in this place if I can help it, except for items that obviously have more sense to be in the school, instead of my home.”  
“And when you’re back here?”

Severus smiles and waves his wand, at once everything that had been packed away or other was appearing and zooming about the area, until every cushion, framed photo and even plate was in their place.  
“Of course, same deal with your room at the Manor, you choose how you want to decorate,” he tells her.  
Zaria went straight to work to start doing just that.


	9. Ignorance

Chapter 9  
Ignorance

Severus woke early the next morning; he wanted to get a few things prepared before the very first class. May have also been that he simply couldn’t sleep anymore, either way; he got himself showered and dressed before checking in on Zaria.

Zaria didn’t stay up too late, doing a basic decoration and organisation of her room and items, before she felt too tired to continue.

A soft smile was on his face when he saw her tucked right into her sheets and blankets. Her hair splayed about on the pillow, Gunner right beside the bed in his own doggy bed. Gunner had lifted his head when he saw Severus’s shadow, but only for a moment to acknowledge him, before putting his head back down on his front paws.

He decided to wait until after he had his morning coffee to wake Zaria up.

While he knew she was perfectly capable of waking herself up, and she did set an alarm, Severus hadn’t really ever been able to do this sort of thing of a morning. Which was to wake his child up so she could get ready and off to school – all of that was done by Bethany, (and schooling is very different over in Australia), but just this once Severus wanted to have that experience, even if Hogwarts was a boarding school.

Zaria also looked a little blue in the lips, which concerned him, though Gunner wasn’t reacting, so it didn’t seem to be causing anything to be alarmed for – and the dog did know when to notify Severus, having done this twice since he entered the family unit.

“Morning, Dad,” Zaria yawns.  
“Good morning, Sweetheart,” said Severus.  
“Did I miss my alarm?” she asks, looking at her clock.  
“No, I just hope you didn’t mind me wanting to have at least one morning where I am waking you up for school.”  
In response, Zaria sits up and wraps her arms around her father and hugs up. He returns this with his own firm embrace.

“I am also going to be getting your medication potions; you may need to take them sooner than scheduled on the account of your lips,” he tells her.  
Zaria places her fingers on her lips.  
“Gunner would have made noise if it turned serious,” Severus assures. “Are you able to get up and start getting yourself ready while I get your medication?”  
“I believe so,” Zaria answers.  
Severus leaves her to it, giving Gunner a quick scratch behind the ear before leaving the room.

He retrieves the potions from his little potions room, and places them on the dining table with fresh fruit juice, so when Zaria came out of the bathroom all showered and dressed in her uniform, except her hair, she was able to simply take them, the juice just helps with the aftertaste and her requirement for natural sugar.

Satisfied that the medication had acted very quickly, Severus made sure that Zaria’s little satchel was ready for her, while he had her finish getting herself ready. He didn’t need to stay once this was done, as she knew he had things to do and he wanted to maintain in not mollycoddling her, as he knows how much she hates being wrapped in cottonwool like she’s made out of porcelain.

It was about 20 minutes later when Severus was able to take himself to the Great Hall, taking his place at the staff table up front. It wasn’t about 5 minutes later when he sees Zaria entering and going over to seat herself at the Gryffindor table.

He couldn’t help the small frown, seeing how she was rather pale, but since Gunner wasn’t reacting and she seemed pretty good, even more since she’s tucking into some breakfast – and pulling out a book to read, he did relax to enjoy his own bacon and poached eggs on toast.

Over at the Gryffindor table, Zaria was really into her book, but when she saw someone about to reach out to touch Gunner;

“Do not touch Gunner, as he is working, and you did not ask me if it was okay first,” her voice was very precise, there was no malice, just a warning tone.  
She says this as she turns to see Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas standing there.

“I told you not to try and pat the dog,” Dean said to Seamus, shaking his head, before turning to Zaria; “Sorry, I did try to explain to him the rules about service dogs, as my Mum works in training them, some people just cannot help themselves.”

“I couldn’t resist! I love dogs!” Seamus defends, rubbing the back of his head, looking slightly awkward and genuinely apologetic.

Zaria softens at this, saying; “I can understand the love for dogs, or any animal really, but it does help to learn to handle your impulse to touch. Gunner is currently working, hence the vest, to be allowed to interact he will need to be released by me, or in certain cases my Dad, to do so. But even if he is released, he would still like to be on the job, just less restricted.”

“May I ask why you have him?” Seamus asks.

“You may, and the answer is I have a crappy heart and lungs, Gunner is with me to pick up and alert for any serious changes, no matter how small, such as change in blood flow to completely stopping in breathing and passing out.”

“But surely you should be able to manage without him, can’t you?” came the voice of Hermione Granger, who decided to plonk herself opposite to where Zaria was sitting.

Dean makes a face at this and answers coolly before Zaria could; “There are people who genuinely require such dogs to have a life, Hermione, I don’t know what Zaria’s story is, but to simply ask such an insensitive question as that, particularly since you pretty much voiced, very loudly, how you disprove of the dog last night to most of the others in our common room, like you know everything about what a service dog can and cannot do.  
“Even if Gunner wasn’t for the reasons he’s trained for, he would have been trained for something else, perhaps a different dog that would fit to the person’s needs. You just don’t like dogs, Hermione, it’s that simply put.”

“I do like dogs, thank you very much; I just don’t believe they belong in a school, unless the person is blind!” Hermione defends with bristling.

“Then you have a lot to learn about the other types of dogs who work for people with disabilities and disorders, Hermione Granger!” Zaria scowls in a voice that could be heard by a good number about the Great Hall. “There are dogs that are trains specifically to help soldiers who have come from warzones, to help them with their PTSD, there are dogs that are for helping people with various disorders, such as tourettes, mobility issues and even to make sure little Johnny the five year old with autism who is also a runner can’t runaway because the dog is trained to stop him, or to simply help him out of his shell if he’s the inward type.  
“Also, it’s not just dogs that help with such things, however majority are for therapeutic reasons, over actual service.”

Hermione makes a face at this. “Animals are not for therapy.”

“Then... you are not an insufferable know-it-all, you’re an intolerable boorish cow!” Zaria snaps. “No... Wait... that’s insulting cows! Cows are way more tolerable than what you.”  
She ups and leaves the Great Hall, with Gunner right alongside her.

“I did tell you that allowing your daughter to bring the dog would be a bad idea, especially if she is insulting her fellow students like that. Perhaps disciplining her would teach her to have some better manners here, and accept that not everyone is going to be okay with her special allowances,” Severus hears Dumbledore, who had sipped his drink casually.

Severus shoots the Headmaster a glare. “No, Zaria was correct in putting Miss Granger in her place! If that girl is not willing to learn, then that is her own fault and stupidity for willing to be that way. I will not be disciplining my child, and Gunner is more than a special allowance... unless you really want one of your students to die because of your own ignorance. Bethany had worked tirelessly to acquire him for our daughter, and I had to take her place in finishing that, dare to try and have the dog removed that might result in endangering my daughter in any way you will regret it!”

Dumbledore merely shrugs at this; “If you say so, Severus.”

###

Zaria found Arithmancy to be brilliant... even with Hermione Granger being in the same class.

‘Wasn’t she meant to be in Divinations with Potter and Weasley?’ she did think with some bafflement.

Then there was Transfiguration, which she excelled at, equalling the one and only Hermione Granger, and this led to Zaria’s work mysteriously started going wrong, and a few people – Ron, Lavender and Parvati to be exact – thought it was rather funny seeing Snape’s own daughter being humiliated in front of McGonagall.

Though McGonagall didn’t see Zaria had done anything wrong, she had been watching and even she couldn’t explain what happened, when questioning the class, no-one owed up, but Zaria knew who the culprit was, even looking straight at Granger, who was content in busying herself with her own work... which turned out brilliantly.

Zaria chose to spend lunchtime in the quarters, wanting nothing to do with people, especially if she had to deal with the fuzzy haired cow... no... Not cow, that’s insulting the bovine creature... and calling her a bitch, would be insulting dogs...  
“I see you’re already getting into the homework?”

She looks up from the coffee table, where she decided to seat herself, (on the floor, not the actual table), so see her father.  
“I just wanted to get away from the unbearable amoebiasis* and the dunderheads,” Zaria replies.  
“I am assuming you’re talking about Granger?” Severus asks, sitting on the armchair.

His daughter nods. “Deliberately sabotaged my work in transfigurations, Weasley, Brown and Patil believing it was rather funny, yet it was deemed as a stupid accident and no proof of it being interfered with.”  
“Didn’t Professor McGonagall double check on this?”  
“No, she did not. I did try to explain, only to be brushed off; at least it felt that way.”

It was Bethany all over again in Severus’s mind. Because of Beth’s friendships and the way she was, if her work just happened to ‘accidentally’ go wrong, it was brushed off as that, none of the teachers would look into it... except Slughorn and Flitwick who saw Beth as a very promising student with a good future. McGonagall did like Bethany, but clearly, once again, not seeing things for how it is.

“I’ll have a talk to McGonagall about this,” Severus offers.  
“No, Dad, don’t, it’ll be fine,” said Zaria, trying to sound earnest.  
Severus shakes his head. “I don’t want you to suffer on the account of a few foolish idiots.”

“And I don’t want this to made into a big issue, at least not on the first day,” Zaria pleas. “If it continues to happen, bring it up, but right now, please don’t.”  
Severus didn’t like this, but he could see that his daughter really wanted to let it go.  
“One week,” he finally says after assessing it over. “If this continues for a week, I will have to speak to Professor McGonagall.”  
Zaria understood and agreed.

###

“Whose idea was it to put Hagrid as a professor?”  
This question came from Millicent Bulstrode.  
“I am clearly unaware of why there is disgruntlement,” says Zaria.

She had heard of Hagrid, obviously, and seen the oversized bloke with face full of hair, but hearing about the man and actually knowing were two different things.  
“He’s a big oaf with no brain,” says Draco.  
“You can shut your mouth, Malfoy!” Harry Potter snips, for he overheard it.  
“Pretty sure Hagrid has a brain, Draco,” Zaria says, rolling her eyes, still not understanding the dislike.

Hagrid, with Fang right beside him, got the class to follow him, even the Slytherins were curious on what they were going to see.  
Zaria’s face lit up when she knew what they were going to learn about.  
They were quite large with the head and front of an eagle and the backend was of a horse.  
“Can anyone tell me what these beautiful creatures are?”

Hermione’s hand shot up, as well as Zaria’s.  
“They’re hippogriffs,” Hermione says not giving Hagrid the chance to choose between her and Zaria.  
“Correct answer, Hermione, 10 points to Gryffindor,” Hagrid beams. “Now can anyone tell me how to you approach a hippogriff, should yer come by one?”

Zaria puts her hand up, only for Hermione to just shoot her mouth off with; “They’re just like horses, you need to show who has the upper hand.”

“You don’t know the difference between horses and hippogriffs now do you?” Zaria replies to this, giving Hermione a look of ‘you don’t know everything’, before giving the correct answer. “Horses may have similarities to hippogriffs, they are extremely different. While a horse can be broken and trained, depending on the type of horse that is, as there are some those will not and cannot be broken, a hippogriff is not the type of creature than can be broken in like a horse. Both animals can be very proud, granted, however, hippogriffs have a much more higher need to be respected, for lack of better explanation, meaning if you were to approach one, though in the wild I would not recommend this, you need to remain eye contact, and bow your head.  
“If the hippogriff bows back, then it is safe to approach, however if they don’t, walk the other way, unless you want one of those talons slashing you open. The other is to not insult the creature, a single minor slur and those talons, or even the beak, will give you a hippogriff version of a backhand.  
“Horses have a more simplistic way of addressing idiots.”

“Which would be?” Pansy asks out of curiosity.

“You don’t want to be on the wrong end of a horse’s hooves, put it that way,” said Zaria.  
“10 points to Gryffindor, good explanation Zaria,” said Hagrid, with an approving smile.  
He did give the offer for someone to demonstrate, to which was given to Harry to a very handsome grey named Buckbeak.

Harry was successful in this. He ended up being flown around on Buckbeak’s back.  
“I thought you said hippogriffs cannot be broken in,” Hermione says to Zaria.

“They cannot, Hermione. Doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to show trust and allowances toward being handled, though. Obviously these ones have given Hagrid their trust, doesn’t mean they are domesticated. You cannot domesticate a hippogriff, much like you cannot domesticate bears and tigers. They can be tamed, but not to the point of leaving their wild nature behind.”

After Harry had gotten off of Buckbeak, it was time for others to have a go in approaching the hippogriffs and seeing how they would go.  
Zaria was successful with Buckbeak and was glad to be able to pat him; she even spoke to him, very similar to how she would speak to her horse, Rhapsody.  
She even managed to make sure Draco didn’t say anything to upset the beast.

All in all, it was a good lesson; no-one got hurt and Zaria was walking back to the castle beaming, because she could tick being up close and personal with a hippogriff off of her bucket list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *amoebiasis - an infectious disease caused by an amoebra ( single-celled amoeboids), that can cause bloody messy poop and abdominal pain, which can lead to Severe colitis, colonic perforation, anemia.
> 
> I changed the hippogriff scene, as the original wouldn't fit.
> 
> Also, been doing what I can to be accurate with Gunner as a service dog and the rules around him - plus of course the ignorance of some.


	10. Bad Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you just know deep down in your gut...

Chapter 10  
Bad Feeling

For the next following weeks Zaria was doing her best to adjust to the environment she was in. She proved time and time again on just how capable of a student she was, more than capable, much to Hermione Granger’s dismay, the staff were starting compare the two Gryffindor girls on their academics, skills and so forth.

During her first Defence against the Dark Arts Zaria couldn’t help but laugh at the granny clothes wearing Snape boggart Neville Longbottom had conjured, where many thought she was going to take offence to it.

She did, however, grill her father later that evening, as she had witnessed how he was earlier that day during potions class toward Longbottom.  
“You want to have a go at others for giving me crap, but you’re not seeing yourself doing the same thing.”  
It was enough for Severus to call the young boy to his office to speak to him. When the discussions were over, Neville Longbottom walked away less afraid of the Potions Master, as well as perhaps for both parties, an understanding toward each other.

If anything, having Zaria around did give Severus a slight better reason to be of a better person.  
Still wasn’t helping the girl with everyone, however.  
It was fair to say that while Zaria was gaining friends, she was also getting her fair share of adversaries.  
Her work was deliberately getting interfered with. A few people have tried to rile Gunner up, never mind why he was with his worker in the first place! Thankfully none were successful in this quest, and many were dealt with.

Zaria would do her best to just brush these off, except when any try to disrupt her dog from his job, but Severus could see that this was affecting her. He would speak to her, Zaria knew it was best to not down play anything where her father was concerned, and when Severus speaks to McGonagall about what is going on, she does her best to see to it that her House does the right thing, keeping an eye out for wrong doing, but ‘nothing comes up’ according to her.  
Professor Lupin, however, caught sight of some tampering, and deducted points for it and assigned detention on the culprit.  
This went on for a month.

One morning, Zaria got ready for her classes and went to breakfast in the Great Hall like she usually did for a school day. Gunner trotted very closely to her, which is nothing unusual.  
It started off as a simple tiny cough, nothing to worry about, reading her book as she always liked to do as she at her breakfast.  
Once again getting questioned on the book she happened to be reading by some of her fellow Gryffindors. She rolls her eyes at this.  
“Do you not have anything better to do than to harass me over my choice of reading content?” she says.  
“As Head Boy, it is my duty to make sure you’re following the rules and not doing something you shouldn’t be,” Percy Weasley goes to say.  
“Last I checked reading Tom Clancy isn’t against the rules,” Zaria replies keeping an air of cool in her tone.  
“Surely your old school wouldn’t have allowed you to read such things!”  
“Oh for Merlin’s sake, will you go away, if you have a bloody problem with what I am reading just confiscate the book from me and see what happens!” Zaria fires at Percy.  
“I’ll do just that!” Percy says without much emotion, taking the book from Zaria and walking away.

Zaria sees this smug like expression on some of the other Gryffindors, Granger, Patil and the other Weasleys being among them.  
“Percy, I think you really ought to give the book back,” Harry Potter does speak up as the Head Boy passes him.  
“Why? She was reading something inappropriate and I confiscated it,” Percy says in a much authorised tone.  
“But she wasn’t doing any harm,” Potter frowns.  
“Don’t worry about it, Harry,” said Zaria in a flat tone. “I have other books to read back in my bookcase that I can simply grab.”  
There was a slight rasp sound coming from her, but she goes into her bag to grab her specialised puffer; though it had been a good while since she’s needed it, it’s always been in her bag, or on her person.

“Faking it much?” she hears someone hissing.  
Zaria glares at Lavender Brown, before taking a dose and waits a few moments to see if the one puff was all she needed.  
Gunner was watching her with eagle eyes, his head placed on her knee. She gives him an assuring scratch behind the ear.  
The bell rings for students to get to class, Zaria slowly makes her way.  
For all of that morning, Zaria stayed quiet and did her work to the best of her ability. Gunner kept his head on her knee, a small sign of what he had been trained to do; he was picking up something and monitoring it.

She could barely eat lunch, yet she was hearing whispers;  
“Is she okay?”  
“She’s just faking it!”  
“But she’s pale.”  
“So is Ellie, but she’s not looking for sympathy.”  
Zaria didn’t respond to any of this, she couldn’t find her voice.

The bell goes and she goes to the next class, she sits at the desk and hears the Professor’s voice at some point;  
“Zaria, are you alright?” it was then when Gunner was starting to tug on her arm, to get her to the ground.  
She sees blurry... starting to go dark... she hears Gunner starting to bark and do his duty... and the sentence...  
“Oh, come on! You’re not fooling anyone!”  
She sees the person who said it, just before passing out completely.

###

Severus had been overly busy for all that day. He hadn’t seen Zaria at all, not at breakfast, not at lunch.  
But he couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right.  
His suspicions were confirmed when he sees Harry Potter coming into his classroom.  
“Potter,” he frowns deeply; “I am in the middle of a class and you’re meant -”  
“Zaria’s in the hospital wing,” Harry cut him off.  
It was enough for the Potions Master to have the students pack up and be dismissed.

Severus enters the Hospital Wing to see Madam Pomfrey exiting a closed set of curtains.  
“Where is Zaria? What has happened?”  
The Nurse puts her hands up to slow the concerned father down.  
“She’s in here,” she answers the first question, indicating to the curtains she had just come from. “According to Lupin Zaria was just sitting down to start class, he had noticed Gunner acting peculiar and also how pale she was and her lips turning blue. He did ask if she was okay, only for her to not respond, instead she just collapsed and her dog was acting to how he was trained to.  
“She was sent here within moments of the collapse, I’ve been analysing her, while waiting for Healers from St Mungo’s to come by. Gunner hasn’t left her.”

“Is she conscious?” Severus asks, keeping calm.  
“She is, but is very weak,” Pomfrey replies.  
He wasn’t stopped from going through the gap and to the other side, where he sees his daughter lying on her side, face nearly concealed into Gunner’s fine-looking coat, who was on the bed with her.  
“Zaria?”  
Zaria turns to see him. Severus noticed that she had been crying.

She doesn’t reject in having him helping her to sit up, so he could hug her firmly; her own arms going around him.  
No words were exchanged, Severus could sense Zaria wanted to speak, but wasn’t in the right frame yet; so he doesn’t push it.  
The Healers came; one of them was Australian, who, in fact, was one who had been part of the team who helped with Zaria and her diagnosis, treatments, assessments and so forth.

Severus didn’t want to leave when asked; Healer Clancy was with the father;  
“We have never asked the girl’s mother to leave, we had her where she could still be able to be with Zaria and allow us to do what was needed,” he explains to the other Healers. “It allowed for easier communication and I do not believe that a parent should be leaving their child in full.”

The other Healers wanted to protest on this, but Severus speaks in a tone that clearly stated that he was in no mood to be fucked with; “If you have a problem with me being my daughter, then I strongly suggest you push past that. If you lot had done your jobs properly, years ago, my daughter wouldn’t have to have travelled to the other side of the globe in order to save her life sooner; which caused some dunderheads to believe that it was their god damn given right to bar me from Zaria and Beth for nine long years!  
“Either you two take on Healer Clancy’s advice, I will simply have to you two removed and let Clancy and Pomfrey do your jobs. At least I know I can trust them to do what is needed without being brushed aside.”

Zaria was given a full examination, Healer Clancy wasn’t allowing for anything to be missed. Zaria was far too used to such matters, especially after an episode like the one she had just had.  
Severus watched, almost without blinking, he saw Healer Clancy’s face going into this slightly grim expression, enough for him to pull the father aside, out of Zaria’s earshot.

“I’m going to go straight to the point,” the Healer starts, voice in a mix of professionalism and care. “I’ve taken some samples, as you’ve seen, to have them tested to not only see not only how long this failure has been going on for, but what may have caused it, if there is anything.”  
“Before she left Australia, she was extremely healthy, even with her conditions, the Healers made a point of sending myself and Healers Patterson and Delaney everything over, just in case something was to happen to her whilst over here. Much to St Mungo’s dislike toward this measure for whatever reason they wouldn’t disclose.”

“What are you saying?” Severus asks.  
“Zaria’s heart is starting to fail, and her lungs aren’t doing so well, either.”  
Severus’s heart dropped. “What?”  
“I am not overly sure why the sudden acceleration in her decline, but I can assure that we will get the answers needed.”  
“Is there anything that can be done?” Severus asks.  
Healer Clancy replies; “Not until we get the results of what it is we’re dealing with, only then we can figure out what can be done. I wish I could give you a definitive answer right now.”

As much as he hated to hear it, Severus understood.  
He was able to re-enter the area Zaria was in. All he could do the moment his eyes were back on his daughter was replace his arms around her. He refused to shed a single tear, not in front of her.  
“I’ll be okay, Daddy,” was all he hears her say.

###

The knock on his office door alerted Severus to turn and see who it was.  
“You may enter,” he says to the five students, not getting up from his seat behind his desk. “Close the door, if you please, and all of you stand right along here, if you do not mind.”  
Lavender Brown, Hermione Granger, Cormac McLaggen, Ginny and Percy Weasley all stood in a straight line in front of Severus’s desk.

The Potions Master wasted no time in speaking; his voice smooth as silk.  
“First and foremost, Mr Weasley, all of the books you decided to confiscate from Zaria are to be on my desk by lunchtime tomorrow. You may have that badge because Professor Dumbledore believed you were more fitting out of the seventh years for this year, but I feel that it is getting to your head. Especially since you felt it necessary to harass my daughter over her choice of reading material, not just reading material, I am going to be asking that all the items you’ve taken from her to also be returned, along with the books.

“I shall be asking for you to tell the Prefects of your House to do the same, as it has come to my attention that a lot of my daughter’s items have gone missing and she has finally told me of what has been going on for this past month of her attending this school. I will be passing this on to the others who sort to take things that do not belong to them, and never return them, which, last I checked, is a violation of what is recommended from a Prefect or Head Boy or Girl. Any item that has been confiscated must be taken to a member of the staff, I do not recall any of this happening, so unless you want me to go after you for theft, lunchtime sharp!

“If any of the items taken is either damaged or used... yes used, as I know that a few of the items taken was something of deep importance to my daughter, and if anyone has decided they were of more rights to it, they will not wish to know the consequences. I will not be naming what those items are, just know that you and the others have been warned.”

“But Professor McGonagall -”

“Professor McGonagall may be your Head of House! But this is _my daughter_ we’re talking about! So do not _dare_ try and see if you can go over my head, Mr Weasley!” Severus snips, still in his silken voice.

“Secondly, Mr McLaggen, your involvement in trying to deliberately disrupt Gunner, _daring_ to tell Zaria that she needs to shut up and just let him pat the dog, along with some of your group – and _I will be wanting their names_ , so you will be giving them to me before you leave here – is _beyond_ inexcusable. Gunner is _**not**_ for your entertainment! He is a _service dog_ , meaning he is with Zaria to make sure if anything was to happen to her, he is able to do what he is trained to do. Ignoring my daughter’s requests for you, and your posse, to _not touch the dog_ , or refusing to ask if it was even okay, really pissed me off when I was told this by Zaria – who had been keeping her mouth shut on the antics from, not just you, McLaggen, but the rest of you! Why she was even protecting you, I guess she was trying give you chances to change, only for it to backfire on her and her good heart!

“Deliberately sabotaging Zaria’s work for no good reason, other than to make sure you stay on top as being some sort of teacher’s pet, Miss Granger; some how finding way to interfere with my daughter’s health by messing with her medications, Miss Granger, Miss Weasley and Miss Brown.”

“We didn’t think it would do anything bad...” Miss Brown whispers.

“ _Didn’t think it_ -?” Severus went to repeat what he had just heard; his face looked mighty ugly right now. “Because of your foolishness and dangerous stunt my daughter’s heart is _**dying**_! All the work that had been done to keep her alive has been damaged and as a result I do not even know how long she even has to **live** , unless she gets a new heart! Her lungs, thankfully only copped minor damage where it can be fixed to where she can breathe more easily.

“To top it all off, _all five of you_ , and whoever else was in on targeting my child, dared to question her about something that is so serious. She has given you enough blasted information about why she had the medication, the dog and why things were the way they were! But you...”

Severus stops himself, needing to not only take a breath, but to figure out what he was to even say.

His dark eyes glowering at the five students, who weren’t even looking at him, all of them either fidgeting or other, he sees the girls looking like they were going to burst into tears. But right now, he didn’t particularly care for their sobbing!

“You are very, _very_ lucky that Professor Lupin happened to see what was going on the moment Zaria walked into that classroom three days ago! I am utterly _disgusted by you_ Miss Granger in learning on _your own words_ to Zaria as she was succumbing to her ill health, I am just as _disgusted_ by you Miss Brown, when I learned from Professor Lupin that you and one other dared to try and take Gunner away from her! Gunner was doing his job and you and your buddy... and I _will_ find out who it was who helped you...

“What hurts just as much is that your own Head of House did nothing to aid my concerns! That is why you are here and I am talking to you, without Professor McGonagall! For this is not the first blasted time where this sort of thing has happened and it was ignored – much to the point where it nearly killed two people and destroyed a prized horse! As if the Headmaster and his dealings with certain situations weren’t bad enough!”

“But, sir... how do you know Professor McGonagall ignored -”  
“Because it was me and Zaria’s mother the attack was toward!” Severus cuts Percy off.  
This silenced the third eldest Weasley.

“Hogwarts has been warned over and over again that if something wasn’t done to prevent things from happening, someone was going to get _killed_! And because of the sheer turning of the other cheek and keeping a blind eye, a horse had her back broken, meaning she had to be put down, while her owners spent a good several weeks, almost a few months, recovering from the near death experience! What was worse on the entire thing is that it caused a miscarriage on top of that! So _**two lives**_ were lost that day!

“The moment Zaria stepped into this school was the moment you decided that she wasn’t worthy to be here, all because of your petty reasons, the main one being that she is my daughter! I must be hated so much for you to take such actions out on her, where she had done nothing, nothing to deserve any of it!  
“But no... Because you chose to take on this crusade... let’s just say if my daughter dies I will be having you up for murder! I will be delivering your punishments in the next few days. If any of the staff have a problem with this, then that is their problem, they will not be dealing with me for very much longer anyway.”

“What are you talking about?” McLaggen says rather alarmed by this.  
“I’ll let you draw to your own conclusion,” Severus replies flatly. “ _Now get out!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you get this distinct feeling Severus Snape has had enough?


	11. Had Enough

Chapter 11  
Had Enough

It was of no surprise that what had transpired between Severus Snape and the five Gryffindor students had spread like wildfire, nor the reasons behind it.

“While I get your desire to want to be on top of everything and know everything, the way you went about it, especially on Zaria when you’ve been told, repeatedly, to stop by Neville, Dean, Seamus and myself, Hermione! Had I known you were tampering with someone’s medication, I would have dropped the friendship sooner,” Harry spoke in a tone full of coldness and appal.

“How were we to know that it would do that to her?!” Hermione hiccupped through her many tears. “All it was meant to do was having her be a little tired for a moment, and then send her into a burst of energy.”

“And her work could have easily been fixed!” Ginny tried to defend, feeling miserable.  
Harry threw his hands up in the air in exasperation and walked away, shaking his head, muttering under his breath.

The Slytherins were none too friendly toward majority of the Gryffindor House after receiving the news of what had happened to their Head of House’s daughter. Same went with any Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who aided in the torment.

Severus had taken Zaria out of Hogwarts, placing her in Snape Manor, where she would be best comfortable and everything can be set up to keep her under strict monitoring. He also had the paperwork he needed to step away from his post as Professor, Head of Slytherin and Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

When McGonagall tried to get Severus to see reason, or worse, Dumbledore intervening with the worried father in what he was doing, Severus Snape blew right on up.

“ _You never gave an iota of shit toward my wife or me_ , even more when it came to _our child_! You sort to do _everything_ to prevent me from being with my family when they _needed_ me the most! _Darn it_! Someone tried to have Bath killed before we were officially married, causing her to lose her first pregnancy! Someone went as far as trying to kill Zaria before she was even born! It only got worse when she was born and dared to survive!

“ _ **I am officially done!**_ I am done with this school, and its inexcusable bias toward how things are. _I_ , a concerned parent, asked, no, _pleaded_ with you to keep an eye on what was happening to my daughter! _I bloody warned you of what has been going on_ , Zaria didn’t have to say anything, for I could see her, my child, deteriorating due to the effects of the fellow students here, but I am glad she spilled everything; even more damning was Healer Clancy and his team finding out the cause of Zaria’s turn!

“Only saving grace I can find in all of this, other than one Professor having _the bloody sense_ to do what the rest of this school should have been doing in the first place, instead of just targeting Slytherin for their misdeeds, are the friends who did their best to intervene, the only guilt they are bearing is they didn’t know about Granger, Brown and the Weasley girl’s attempt to kill my daughter, along with a few other from different houses, you have their names!

“ _You_ have done _nothing_ but hinder, neglect and cause unnecessary headache! _**This**_ is my written statement and resignation! I gave it to the school board with every single reason as to why I refuse to teach at this school any longer! Why it is important that I am with my child to see to her needs! And why they really, really need to have a closer look at to what the fuck goes on in this place!  
“And if you _**dare**_ to stop me, _I will_ have you charged with aiding and abetting in the attempted murders of students... past and present...!”

Before either could utter a word, Severus was out of what was once his office. Everything that had made up what was his space, from the preserved jars to the small touches was no longer in sight, packed and taken away.

This meant that Hogwarts was without a teacher for potions, and a Head of Slytherin House. As much as Severus did care for his House, his daughter came first.  
Zaria was doing her best to keep as active as her body would allow, but she was weak and started having seizures thanks to the tampering of her medications done by others. Each and every one of them draining her, leaving Severus near on begging for her to stay with him.

She needed a new heart, but there was nothing coming up that would be a suitable match.  
Severus began filing lawsuits, and in the same process, started to take the steps to have him and Zaria move out of the United Kingdom, to Australia, where treatment was more promising to prolong Zaria’s life just enough to hope for a miracle heart.  
Because of the severity of what had happened, the Daily Prophet somehow got wind and that was when shit really hit the fan.

But instead of it being supportive of the lawsuit that wasn’t just being taken out by Severus, but a few others since they became aware of what the former Professor was doing, and why, they were trying to defend the actions of how the staff had handled the situation and of the students, the whole ‘they’re just kids being kids’, which really angered Severus.  
When someone wanted to have a one on one with the former Head of Slytherin, Severus simply responded with;

_Why? You’ve made your views extremely clear on how you’re seeing this situation. Surely someone who was once former student, and now a former teacher, would have some good insight on what has been going on within the school, even more when that same former student and teacher had his own child’s health being severely damaged and is slowly dying as a result of these ‘kids being kids’._   
_You’re questioning as to why a school, and certain people, are being filed against?_   
_Ask yourself, if this was your child, or valued family member, wouldn’t you do the same? Or would you brush it off? Like I have seen time and time again, because the hierarchy doesn’t seem to want to deal with serious situations that have nearly claimed lives, over and over again... and this one, my own daughter, is one step too far in my view._   
_Others have finally started to come forward... why not go ask Albus Dumbledore why that is._

It was after that letter had been sent where Severus had moved Zaria, Gunner and himself to the airport, where he had booked with the strong help from Healers Clancy, Patterson and Delaney, for they saw it as the ‘safest’ option available that wouldn’t result in too much more damage to Zaria’s heart.  
To make sure that Zaria was able to be monitored, Healer Patterson went with them.

They left just in the nick of time, before the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the British branch could storm the Manor in order to apprehend Severus Snape and have him arrested...

Severus learned of the reasons after reaching the hotel room in Vienna, Austria.  
Zaria wanted to know, but Severus didn’t want to give her extra reasons to worry.

“All you need to know is that some members of the British Ministry are so far up their own hides, and the those who they believe are the greatest gift to man, they will stop at nothing to deny that they are ever in the wrong,” he tells her. “I had a hunch and acted on it, and I am glad I did.”  
“But... they wanted to arrest you,” said Zaria.

“Arresting me would mean they would drag you away and deny you what you need. I do not say that to make you afraid, I am telling you because they don’t want their precious facade on everything’s perfect and dandy to break. They are in the mindset on if I am to drag them down, they’re going to take me with them, and not want others to know just how corrupt things had gotten.  
“What they hadn’t counted on was that I was several steps ahead of them and that we were granted protection under the International Wizarding Asylum Act by the Australian Ministry, meaning no-one from the British Ministry can have us taken in and the countries cannot touch us because they would have been given the information needed to ensure that we get to Australia without delay.”

“I just wish it didn’t take for my slip ups to get to this point,” Zaria whispers. “I should have been more careful.”  
“No, Zaria! You’re not to blame in any of this!” Severus says firmly to her.

“Then why does it feel like there is a target on our backs? Especially on mine? From as much I have learned, it feels like someone didn’t want me around. They tried to stop us from seeing you, several times something happens, the last one... the last one before now killed Mum, because she got in between me and the maniac driver who had been following me and tried running me over, before...”

This was news to Severus. He had been told that there had been an accident involving a large vehicle, but no one would give him straight answers and details. He didn’t question Zaria on it, because he didn’t want to traumatise her even further, for he knew she was on the scene when it happened. Just as much as when this wasn’t the first time Zaria, and Beth, were threatened... on Australian soil!

All Severus could do right now was comfort Zaria.  
“We will get to the bottom of it,” he sooths.

###

_Four months later..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was originally one long chapter, but I chose to divide it - believe me the following chapter was very difficult to write, as you'll probably see why.


	12. Changes and Downturn

Chapter 12  
Changes and Downturn

Tears were rolling down his cheeks, as he held tightly to the hand of his little girl’s hand. He was praying beyond all hope that he would be given a sign, a little flicker that would let him know.

But, all he could do was just sit here, upon the chair, beside the hospital bed, not leaving Zaria’s side for anything... unless he really had to, but even then, any step taken away from her was gut wrenching.  
Didn’t matter if the Healers told him to rest, he couldn’t rest!  
Not now!  
Not with his precious baby girl...

Four months ago, Severus, Zaria and Gunner arrived in Australia without incident. It was three days after they had started to settle into the old house Zaria had grown up in, with a wondrous acreage with the animals that were still residing here, (and being cared for by those who had gotten to know Beth and Zaria during their stay), where the thirteen year old went downhill very fast.

She wanted to feed the animals, that was all she wanted to do, convincing herself that she was able to manage, not just herself, but her father, too. Zaria always hated to be coddled, treated as if she was this delicate flower, Severus knew this, so he let her... he let her be the fierce young lady she had always been, not allowing her condition slow her down.

Gunner stayed very, very close, alert for anything.  
Severus was also keeping a keen eye.

Zaria managed to get the chicken feed, she tended the chooks, all she had named herself; including Kentucky, Henny-Penny, Pearl and Dolly, plus a rooster named Bulldozer. She was halfway through when Gunner started doing his thing of tugging on her, and sounding his alert, causing Severus to stop what he was doing and hurry on over, just in time to see her collapsing in the large pen where the chickens were.

She was extremely pale, barely able to breathe and turning blue.

He didn’t waste time in getting her to Spring River Hospital, one of the three large hospitals based in the state of New South Wales for wizards and witches – but it also serves Muggles, too, as the Healers have all taken the oath very, very seriously, which means, whoever needs assistance, gets it, there was no turning anyone away, for they’d rather risk minimal exposure, (knowing the steps to help curb it), than have a person die of something that could have been prevented.

As soon as he arrived, he was near on swarmed, and before Severus knew it, Zaria was being wheeled away to be examined... only to end up hooked up to tubes and whatever else, as she needed assistance to not just breathe, but to keep her dying heart pumping as best as it could.

It was about a week after that when the lawsuits he had taken out had come through as successful, meaning he was able to rightfully charge whomever he deemed necessary for their misconduct toward his family.

Severus didn’t hold back, though there were plenty who wanted to fire him with ‘you were in leagues with You Know Who’ and the like, he didn’t let this deter him. If anything, he was able to present the evidence to prove that he was forced into the position, who and why they forced him to take on the role as a Death Eater. Not just any Death Eater, one that was in Voldemort’s inner circle.

He gave accounts of what had happened to cause him to be separated from his wife and child for so long. Never mind the so called compromise that was given, he was still blocked from being within the role he was meant to be in. Hurt that the moment his daughter was finally in his life more – though it was under dreadful circumstances – people were still hell bent of causing misery and mayhem for the father and widower, and toward his only child!

It was upon this when he learned so much more on what had been going on, and how he missed it. Not out of ignorance, more because it was so well covered up by those involved many wouldn’t have guessed.

He had found a journal from not only Bethany, but also one from Zaria.  
Wanting some form of comfort he read them... especially from Zaria’s words, as they were all dated from when she had lost her mother up until just before she collapsed and ended up in this bed.

Turned out his little girl was a real observer and able to pick up on things that was going on around her. Not to mention being a good listener to those who needed an ear.

The things she wrote about Neville Longbottom, about his troubles with his Grandmother, she was respectful with her wording, but he could see how sad she felt in knowing that this boy felt he wasn’t good enough, all because his Grandmother was this overbearing woman who couldn’t accept her grandson for who he was; which is why he seemed to have trouble in confidence... and feared Severus above all because of the stark reminder of his own Grandmother he was giving, if not worse.

That was until Severus spoke to the boy. Which did help Neville gain a little more confidence; he won't be a great potions maker, but at least he was no longer fearing the Potions Master as much as he did. Easing up even more after Zaria struck up a friendship with the boy.

Then there was Harry Potter, another who she had become friends with. The famous Potter clearly wasn’t bothered who Zaria’s father was, if anything it sort of helped mellow things between the teacher and student, as well as a few of the Slytherins, including Draco Malfoy.

The multiple times Potter would stand up to Hermione Granger over her antics towards Zaria – Severus now realised on how much distance Potter was trying to put between him and the Granger girl... the Weasley boy seeming to be flipping between who he wanted to be loyal to... mostly toward...

Severus’s eyes could have set the journal on fire when he saw that it was the youngest Weasley boy who helped Lavender Brown to try and get Gunner away that day!  
How this was found out, Severus didn’t know, but it was safe to say that another person was added to the list of those who needed to be questioned. Seems the only two of that Weasley family who didn’t have anything to do with Zaria’s misery were the twins, Fred and George, probably because she helped them, and Lee Jordan, come up with some ideas for pranks about the school.

Severus had to chuckle when he remembers these harmless pranks being heard about the school; timer set dungbombs going off at random during three days, causing some disruption to classes and uncertainty, because the bombs were invisible!

Dessert one night after dinner somehow ended up being a smorgasbord of disguised foods – chocolate covered Brussels sprouts, mayonnaise filled donuts, spaghetti and meatball cupcakes and more.

No-one knew who pulled it off back then... now Severus understood why, Zaria did like to cook where she felt like it, so she was the one who got the twins and Jordan to give ideas on what can be done for this particular prank that involved cooking, and because the House Elves didn’t seem to mind the third year student gaining culinary skills, if anything they helped, as did the twins and Jordan...

Of course she made sure real desserts were among the array, it was just hilarious watching the students, and some of the staff, looking as if a bomb was going to go off for picking the wrong food.

Many did see the funny side to this prank; save for a few of course. Best one was seeing Granger’s face turning red when she bit into a chocolate that was laced with spicy chilli, trying to douse the burning with water! She didn’t realise that water only made it hotter.

Back to Potter, though, Severus was livid in what he discovered.

Zaria had an excellent way of getting people to open up to her; well those who saw her as someone of value that is.  
It was upon this discovery that the former Professor chose to start making another set of moves to be in a better direction.  
The International Wizarding Confederation were involved due to the stir made from the lawsuit, so any more information to help them decide the best course of action was welcome, from both sides. Yet, the IWC could see who was being as upfront and honest, and who wasn’t.

This all was within the month.  
In that time, Zaria was slowly declining, placed into an induced coma to help her try and slow down the process of possible death.  
They were still waiting on a donor heart.

Come the second month, much more had happened.  
The truth of Bethany’s death and the attempted murder upon Zaria back in the past June had finally been revealed... and the set up for the attempt upon Bethany’s life years before that, the incident that caused the death of Saffron, and the end of Bethany’s pregnancy – she was fourteen weeks along, Severus remembered this vividly, as he shed tears with his then fiancée over the loss of what would have been a little boy and their horse.

Harry Potter was no longer to be staying at his Aunt and Uncle’s home, for the revelation of abuse and neglect was startling and that no-one did anything, especially knowing what the hell was going on!

When Severus heard that Albus Dumbledore protested on this change, the Slytherin sent a Howler to the old man;  
_“YOU DELIBERATELY SENT THAT BOY TO A HOME WHERE HE WAS GETTING BEATEN AND STARVED! JUST LIKE YOU HAVE DONE TO COUNTLESS OF OTHERS, BECAUSE OF YOUR DISTORTED VIEWS OF FAMILY AND HOME AND WHATEVER ELSE, NEVER MIND THE WELFARE OF THE ACTUAL STUDENTS!”_

At first, no-one knew of what to even do with Harry, or any of the other children who have been found to be living in a life of abuse by their families and guardians, for the investigators decided to check not just on Harry Potter, but the rest of the students that have been suspected to have needed help, but never received any, or very little.

It was Severus who donated the Manor to be used as a safe house for these displaced students who wouldn’t have really anywhere to go otherwise, unless they were found in safer hands. He had very strict conditions placed to ensure that whoever was ensuring the welfare of these students – and their younger siblings – they were of good bedside manner and treated them with respect. Any word of disrespect or abuse coming from the place, Severus had charmed and spelled the house to remove the individual within the first twelve hours.

He would have loved to have made it shorter, but he also had to keep in mind ‘bad days’ and circumstances, and whatever else. Probably where a strike policy was put in, as well, something Severus had to be swayed on.

Hogwarts had gone under a massive overhaul of change.

From what Severus had learned through the Malfoys, whom have kept in touch and even visited him and Zaria during the Christmas holidays, many of the staff had to go through a lot of questioning upon their positions within the school and how things had been dealt with in the past.

“Dumbledore, as you know, as been removed from office,” Lucius explains. “McGonagall has been placed on probation; she may care for the students, but clearly not enough to have prevented shocking incidents from happening. Sprout and Flitwick are safe in their roles, if anything they had been doing what they can to have things changed for some time, just weren’t being listened to, or overturned.  
“Hagrid is safe, as much as I didn’t agree with the idea of him teaching, it seems that, once Dumbledore was out of the way and the big lout was given the truth of things, the Gatekeeper is a lot more willing to truly listen to advice. Even agreed to have that three-headed dog be placed in better hands, how on earth that dog was kept in that cramped space after all these years, even after its use had been up?  
“Animal cruelty seems to be among the charges toward the old coot, too.”

“What of Lupin?” Severus dared to ask.  
Though he had left, he had made sure there were plenty of Wolfsbane potions in stock for the DADA teacher – a quiet thank you for helping Zaria.

“He had been found out to be a werewolf, seems Dumbledore wanted to keep it hushed over,” Lucius replies, frowning at this. “Lupin was apparently forced into taking the post; he even went as far as offering to take whatever truth potions and those muggle tests, a lie detector machine? Whatever they are called.”  
“Polygraph,” Severus offers.  
“Weird name,” Lucius remarks. He shrugs this off, and continues. “Either way, Lupin said he would resign and do what is necessary to cooperate with what has been going on. Interesting how many of the students protested when they heard an actual decent teacher, despite him having a full moon allergy, was about to leave, including Slytherins.”

Severus decided to speak up for his old classmate and former colleague; “That would be because Lupin is a decent teacher, more than decent. He may have done bugger all during our time as students when it came to his mates, but years later, when he stepped back into the school to teach after that fraud Lockhart was exposed and, obviously, sent to the Janus Thickey ward at St Mungo’s, as mild mannered as he still ever is, he has changed for the better.  
“I knew he was coerced into taking the position. But, he took it in his stride, no different to how I had to hold my own bloody head up and get on with it, because he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, thanks to Albus and his ways of handling what ought to be done according to him. Plus, after he spoke to me one what had really happened on the day Zaria had collapsed during his class, and who was involved, also making sure the culprits were dealt with by deductions and detentions, before he told me, he did gain some respect from Slytherin House, surely Draco would have explained it all.”

Lucius nods. “In great detail. Bethany was during her time at Hogwarts, she was a friend to Slytherin, always has been, even with being in Gryffindor. Then again, she did go on to marry you and give you Zaria, after all. Comforting to know Zaria is every bit the same as her mother. I guess having a Slytherin father would have helped, too.”

Severus gives a bitter sweet hint of a curl of the mouth. “The Slytherin’s Lioness, if I am not mistaken.”  
“Indeed.”  
“Moving back to the happenings of Hogwarts,” Severus then says.  
“More staff has been put in place, so is to allow for less strain of the minimal staff the school had. A handful of teachers for that many students? It’s unethical! How that was allowed to happen for so long...”

“You’re talking to me as if I didn’t have a clue, Lucius,” said Severus, with a knowing look.  
“Sorry,” Lucius then remembered that Severus was part of the staff before resigning.  
Severus just shakes his head.

“Either way, the ratio of staff to students throughout the years is now heaps more efficient, it will be better organised for the following school year, but for now, it’s a simple matter of having four Transfiguration Professors, including McGonagall, instead of one, to educate the students, similar to the rest of the subjects.”  
“Who did they choose for Headmaster or Headmistress?”  
“They chose Flitwick, with Sprout as Deputy, since the title was taken from McGonagall.”  
“Explains things,” said Severus, thinking over all of what Lucius had told him.

They were shortly interrupted by the one of the main Healers who had been monitoring Zaria, along with two others.  
“Mr Snape, we need to discuss something with you, if you please?”  
“What is it?” Severus could already feel a slight inkling of anxiety deep within.

The conversation that was given to him was what had led him to the here and now, sitting on the chair he had devotedly been sitting in since day dot of Zaria being within this place, holding her hand, with tears streaming down.  
His little girl had been given two more months, if a heart wasn’t presented in time.  
Even her breathing, though it was aided, was starting to go.  
Gunner stayed dutifully with Zaria and Severus, his work wasn’t done yet, and he was providing some comfort to the father, as well as being watchful... and looking hopeful that his owner would wake up.

Movement from the corner of his eye prompts him to look toward the door, where the Healers had come in.  
“It’s time,” one of them respectfully and sympathetically spoke.  
All Severus could do was nod. He had prayed and prayed for something to change... but... he knew deep down... as he stands up and steps aside to allow the Healers to do their duty to turn off the machines and help ease Zaria into the inevitable.  
When the Healers were done, they left the room.

Severus just climbs on the bed, next to Zaria and wraps his arms firmly around her, propping her against him where it was comfortable, resting his chin lightly on top of her head.

“The many years of wanting to be at your side, watch you grow up. I missed so much, yet I know that you, my sweet girl, were very well cared for to the best your mother and I could give, despite the situation we were thrown in.  
“I wish we had more time, you and I. Would have been an extra bonus if we had your mother, too.  
“All we ever wanted for you was to watch you grow up into a wonderful young woman. The many talks your mother and I would have when you were still inside her womb, dreaming of what career you would have, the arguments I’d likely to have with over your first boyfriend,” he choked a laugh at this. “Yet, at the same time, seeing you in a pretty white dress, walking you down the aisle to whoever was worthy to be at your side.”

He paused for a moment, to try and steady himself before continuing.  
“Please wake up,” he stifles. “Please, my girl. _Please_... you’ve fought through so much, please... just... a little twitch of your fingers... please stay...”  
Severus’s words would change from speaking of the times they had, during their travels about the globe, to wanting her to wake up.

Unknowing on how much time had passed. He knew the Healers were keeping track, as well as stepping in every now and again to give a physical presence.  
None of them told Severus to move away.

Each of Zaria’s breaths was more and more laboured, far and few in between...

Gunner had managed to place his head under Zaria’s hand, making it look as though she was scratching his ear, like she used to.  
Severus felt a light touch on his shoulder, a very soft one upon his lips... and another, that was just as familiar, upon his cheek, with the faintest whispers to his ear.

“My Viper... my love... our lioness did her best to stay...”  
"I love you, Daddy.."

He opened his eyes; he didn’t know he had fallen asleep, yet he knew that voice.  
Severus looked around the room, and couldn’t see anyone, but felt her presence... no... Their...

He looks down at Zaria in his arms.  
That was when he knew...  
He held the lifeless shell that once held the essence of his daughter, and sobbed.  
“I love you, Zaria,” he was saying, as the Healers began to enter the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! No hate! Please! Hence why this was hard to write in the first place, because I knew where it was going to end up, no matter which way I was looking at it, it all came down to the last bit.
> 
> What happens now? Well this isn't the end of the story yet...


	13. the Funeral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was, perhaps, the hardest chapter I had ever had to write. Funerals in stories are something I don't often write about, even being to them in real life, they're still a difficult subject to address. Guess that's the point.
> 
> I had to do a LOT of going back and forth trying to make sure this chapter flowed right - including the part at the beginning in the lead up to Zaria's funeral service, right down to the songs that would work, and I went through a HEAP of songs in the library I have and even ones I didn't have in the collection.
> 
> I have added the YouTube links to the song choices given, if you choose to listen to them, (I felt these five were appropriate for Zaria and her grieving father and friends).

Chapter 13  
The Funeral

Severus exited the room with Gunner on his leash, so is to allow the Healers to look after his daughter’s body.

He didn’t quite know where his feet were taking him, he felt near on numb and his brain barely even thinking on anything, except for what he had just lost. He couldn’t even remember being guided by a Healer to a quiet room, let alone sitting on the comfy looking couch, where Gunner sat beside him and plonked his head on his knee.

Severus absentmindedly patted the dog who had been a great help, right up until the end of Zaria’s life. There had been moments during the four month period where did gain some consciousness, but it was only for brief moments, when the attempt to bring her back out of the coma, to see if her heart was getting any better during the treatments the Healers were placing upon her to hopefully reverse the damage.

He didn’t know what to do right now, except to just stay where he was, having Gunner for company.  
No tears were coming, but he still felt defeated and lost.

The next two days were almost a blur, Severus did all he could to just function, he would go between the hospital and the funeral home trying to get things organised. He made sure the animals were looked after, the house, he avoided Zaria’s room, and he didn’t even go into the room that was Beth’s, either. He just wasn’t ready to go into any of those areas.

The death of his daughter had been received by those who had been part of the legal team, meaning that certain aspects to the case have now officially changed. While Severus had been advised to not expect a murder charge, there would still be a significant number of other charges against the accused, including manslaughter.

The trials had already begun within the third month of Zaria’s declining fight, still hooked up to the machines and tubes; which were dragged on due to some people not willing to cooperate, or because certain members of the accused had to have a guardian or lawyer present.

Whenever he knew a session in the courts was happening, Severus would try to be available, but the Malfoys, and several others, took it upon themselves to take his place where he simply could not be there.

On the third day after Zaria’s passing, Severus couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed. Clutched firmly in his arms was an old blanket he found by chance, it was a simple pale pink cotton material with little snakes and lions on it; the blanket Zaria was wrapped up in when he and Beth were finally able to take her home from the hospital after spending a full month and two weeks in it.

Gunner, as he had done before, stayed with Severus.  
He didn’t move when he saw Narcissa entering the room – he had sent word of what had happened almost immediately after he was able to find his way back to the house, prompting the Malfoys to drop everything and go help him.

But with careful wording, she managed to get him to get out of the bed and start getting himself ready to go back to the hospital, for today he was to sign some papers and documents in regard to transferring Zaria’s body to where the funeral was to be held, so is to start preparing.

Along with a few other nitty gritty things that had to be done.  
Severus took Gunner with him. Gunner was always welcome to the hospital, as the Healers understood the dog’s significance. It seemed he had moved his duties to Severus, as a form of emotional support.

The exchanging of signatures and protocol and whatever else went for a little over an hour. Due to making sure that everything was covered, double checked and all questions and answers were addressed.

However it was upon leaving the room where Severus and the Healers were in when Gunner started getting a little fidgety; as though something had gotten his attention and he couldn’t shake it off.

He wasn’t being aggressive, Severus knew; if anything Gunner was acting like...  
“Gunner!” Severus suddenly calls as the German Shepherd managed to get his lead out of his hand and quickly hurried off, causing the former Potions Master to follow to try and catch him.

As for the Healers they seemed to know exactly where that dog was going, so stood aside for him to pass, but a couple followed to be sure.  
Gunner went straight through an area that was adjacent to the ward where Zaria had been in, and once there found the room he was looking for, not pausing as he enters it.

When Severus finally reached the doorway to retrieve Gunner, he saw straight away that the dog had placed himself upon the chair next to a bed, and was gently nudging the hand of a little girl with his snout; softly making little whine like sounds that were exactly the same as the ones he made for Zaria.

Severus steps back a little, but not much, unsure how to proceed, as the little girl wakes up to see this furry visitor.  
“H-hey puppy!” he hears her little voice. “Where’d you come from?”  
She showed no signs of fear, as she lifts the hand Gunner was nudging; Gunner allowed himself to be patted.

After a moment, Gunner then moves from the chair and over to another section of the room, Severus’s eyes follow, it was then when he noticed that this little girl wasn’t alone, for in a crib like bed, was another much smaller child. Severus assumed to be also a girl, based on the pink coverings and clothing.

“That’s my baby sister!” he hears the little girl speak, as Gunner sniffs the infant’s bed, where the infant was sound asleep, seeming to make sure she was okay, too.  
Severus had then noticed the Healer standing next to him.  
“I’m sorry for Gunner’s actions,” he couldn’t help saying in a low tone.

The Healer shakes her head. “Gunner clearly had an instinct and a call for duty, even though he no longer has Zaria; he probably believed that he still had a purpose to carry out. Plus, he has always been a good dog, especially whenever he was off duty to comfort the others around here.”

That was true, Severus thought quietly.  
In all the four months of being back and forth to the hospital, Gunner seemed to have made it his task to be a source of comfort to some of the other patients, especially whenever he couldn’t be with Zaria.  
Severus watches Gunner with the two girls.  
The older girl had chestnut brown hair bordering a cute little face; he couldn’t quite make out the infant.

“What happened to them? Where are their parents?” he couldn’t help asking.  
The Healer looked as though she was torn in how to explain.  
She finally says. “I cannot disclose the full reasons behind their case, I am afraid. But I can say they were both just left here, without any explanation. The poor girls were both sick with fevers and clearly had been neglected.”

“Is that your puppy?” they then hear.  
The little girl had finally seen the Healer and Severus from her bed.  
Severus nearly forgot how to speak for a moment. “Yes, his name is Gunner.”

Gunner had gone over to be patted again by the little girl. She smiled when he did.  
“Hello Gunner,” she says, giggling a little when Gunner licked her little hand. “What is your name?” she then asks.  
Severus looks at the Healer, unsure of whether he ought to answer. The Healer nods her head with a very tiny turn of the corners of her mouth.  
“Severus,” he replies.  
“My name is Jasmine, and that is my sister, Chloe!”

Unknowing what the heck just happened, but under the watchful eye of the Healers, Severus and Jasmine spoke back and forth, with Gunner staying firmly at the little girl’s side. When Chloe stirred and woke up, the Healers tended to her.  
Severus learned that Jasmine was five years old and Chloe was only three months old.

When the Healers were 'stuck' in getting Chloe to have her bottle and needing to attend to another patient, Severus without even thinking offered to help make sure the infant was fed. It was here, where Severus sees that Chloe had the same coloured hair as her older sister, only her eyes weren’t quite in colour being so young, but he suspected that they may end up a nice brown colour, while Jasmine’s eyes were hazel; a slight reminder on Zaria’s eyes.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed; he was equally surprised on even being allowed here, but when it was time for him and Gunner to leave, Jasmine asked if she would get to see them again.

Severus didn’t even know how to even answer; he didn’t want to say no, he didn’t want to say yes, either.  
“I may have to check with the Healers,” was all he could tell her.

###

Two days later, five days after Zaria’s passing, was the funeral.

Severus barely slept a wink, but then, sleep didn’t seem to want to fully come at all, only a few moments here and there. He wanted everything to be perfect, hoping that Zaria would approve of the effort that had been put in to make today worthy of her memory.

He had gotten to know many of the friends Zaria had over the period of having her with him, and had them drop by over the four months of her being in the hospital to check in on her conditions, all of them in sheer hopes whenever she gained any form of consciousness, and to be equally saddened when she faded out once more, and simply to give Severus someone to talk to, allow him to learn more and more about the fiercely driven young lady Zaria was during her time in Australia, before she had to leave for the UK to live with him.

Severus was a little amazed, yet humbled to see just how many had managed to make their way to attend.  
Among them, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Harry Potter, along with Fred and George Weasley.

Severus would learn a little later that Percy, Ron and Ginny had been disowned by the rest of the Weasley clan for their involvement in the harassment and bullying, as well as the actions that led toward the downturn of Zaria’s health that resulted in her death.

They were currently being housed in a temporary holding house, where the rest who have been involved, including Lavender Brown and Hermione Granger, awaiting their sentencing to be read out to them and carried out.

Just the day before, the party had been found guilty over one or more of the charges they were accused of.

It was the same for the adults, only some were being held in Azkaban; others were on a form of probation, where they were restricted in what they were able to do, including Percy being seventeen.

It was of no surprise that some of his old Slytherin students had also turned up, both because some of them were friends with Zaria, and they were in support of their old Head of House.

The room was beautifully and delicately prepared, with mint green, cherry red, silver and ocean blue, (Zaria’s favourite colours); pink carnations, lilacs, rosemary and roses of varying colours; memorabilia placed with much thought and care, from some of the trophies and awards she had achieved with her equestrian sporting events, netball and water sports, to photos that had been taken throughout her life, including the different locations she had been to, just so she could see her father – thanks to the unrelenting British Ministry, (whom are all finally now under full investigation from the IWC for the handling of not just the Snapes, but other families they sought to interfere with when it shouldn’t have happened).

Severus sees the casket, with top open, showing the upper half of Zaria’s resting shell.  
He had requested a quiet few moments alone before the service could fully go ahead. Though he wasn’t fully alone, Lucius and Narcissa refused to leave him, but did stay a respectful distance to allow for Severus to have that moment.

The body had been prepared beautifully; her cascading black hair fanned and straightened, so it looked just like the waterfall Severus remembered it to be whenever he saw Zaria move her head in a certain way, and decorated simply with silver and peridot hair clips that represented her birth month; the slightest touch of makeup; she was dressed her mint green and silver dress robes; she looked like a princess sleeping peacefully.

With a soft hand, Severus gently touches her cheek. She was ice cold against his warm palm. He could sense that she was here in the spirit form, for he felt the softest airbrush like stroke upon his wrist and then another on his shoulder. When he thought about it, it was the same sensation he felt just as he met Jasmine and Chloe two days previous; (and chose to return, with Gunner in tow, because he just didn’t have the heart to deny them when Jasmine had been so pleasant and polite for a five year old, and Chloe warmed to him straight away).

As much has he wanted to speak, his mouth was glued shut, though he knew Zaria would understand the silence from her father.  
Ten minutes afterwards, Severus was able to consent to the go ahead for the service to begin.

Zaria’s well polished casket was closed and beautifully covered over with a mint green pall, decorated with little horses around the edges, laced with dark red spiral like patterns. On top was a skilfully arranged floral piece of white roses, pink carnations, soft coloured lilacs and sprigs of rosemary, resting behind three perfectly placed framed photos;

The first was when she was still in the hospital, bundled up in blankets, with a feeding tube down her nose, her tiny hands clutching the fingers of two different hands that were out of the shot – her parents’ hands.

The second was of when the family had gone to Russia during their 11 night cruise, the photo was of Zaria in front of Catherine Palace, she was 9 years old and was heavily reading about the old Russian royalty when she learned of the trip, a little porcelain doll dressed in Russian attire was tucked under her arm, with a little information booklet about Grand Duchess Anastasia she found on their way in. Zaria herself was dressed snug and looking like she could have fit right into the royal life of Russia.

The last, and perhaps just as significant was of Zaria when she had just turned 13, (taken two days after), it was a perfect shot of where she was sitting astride upon Rhapsody’s back, and they were about to go mid-jump over a hurdle, (Severus witnessed this, seeing how precise and clean the manoeuvre was made, he was given the photo by one of the workers who had a real talent for action photography shots).

The first song, “Please Remember Me” by Tim McGraw, played to notify and have those had gathered to enter and take their places.

After the song had finished and all were seated, the first to speak was a very close friend the Greystone family, who had helped Bethany in keeping things running during any of Zaria’s treatments and recoveries, Linda Klaus, someone who knew Beth since their childhoods, (so obviously got to know Severus).

She spoke the words of thank you, why today was of significance and a few other much necessary notices, before handing over to Severus to speak; one of the few eulogies that had been decided to give. (He just didn’t want to deny Zaria’s friends, who had asked, a chance to talk of the girl they knew).

“There are many ways I could speak when it comes to my daughter,” he begins, once he stood at the podium. “Fierce. Confident. Heart of gold. Just to give a few words to describe Zaria. She was also a fighter, not just with the battle on her health, but outside of it, too.

“She didn’t know the meaning of the words ‘give up’, or if she did, she’d ignore them; one example was when Zaria was three, she was determined to get some toy from Draco; after probably an hour of trying to get this toy, she walks away. The assumption was she gave up and went to do something else, as encouraged a good number of times within that hour. Little did we know that this was some sort of lull, for when Draco thought he was safe and put this toy down for a split moment, that was when Zaria chose to strike, speeding on over, clobbers Draco with a hard covered book, grabs the toy and runs off with it. Leaving the boy stunned on what the heck just happened, and a nice lump on his head.

“Of course as she grew up she learned when it was time to walk away, but between the ages of learning to crawl to probably age five, good luck on getting her to turn away from whatever goal she was attempting to do.

“Perhaps this is why Zaria always had the will to keep going the way she had for so as long as she was born, even more when her mother and I learned of the conditions revolving around her heart and lungs, after a good number of years trying to get the answers to why she would randomly stop breathing, or just collapse all together. It’s difficult to put into words on the relief we had when we were able to find not only the answers, but also the solutions, to Zaria and try and help give her a better quality of life possible.

“She certainly didn’t want to be coddled and treated as though she wasn’t capable of doing anything. If anything, that mantra of never giving up she placed on herself is perhaps why Zaria was able to do the many things she had set her mind to, in many forms, from learning how to ride horses and caring for animals, to giving her parents a heart attack when she decided she wanted to go into the shark cage in South Africa, meaning we had to go in with her. Care to know what it’s like seeing a great white up close and personal? Zaria would describe the experience as exciting, I am sure she has told of it a great number of times. I would have preferred to have stayed in the bloody boat, picturing these things on my plate with a side of chips and a lemon wedge.

“Bethany and I, despite the situation we were placed in, did whatever we were able to ensure that these experiences throughout Zaria’s life were full of worth and meaning, as well as excitement. Seeing my daughter’s face when she saw such places as Machu Picchu, Tsarskoe Selo and the distant volcanos of Costa Rica, and participating in the many activities as possible, and absorbing it all is perhaps many of the multitude of memories that will very much be looked upon, knowing she had a life fulfilled.

“I just wish Zaria had the chance to live for many more years, the moments she would try and cling on over the last months of her life were ones that did have sparks of hope for all who knew and cared for her, as well as, of course, myself.

“Sadly, this wasn’t to be. I won’t go into details that surround on the circumstances that led to Zaria’s untimely passing, for it is too painful to speak of it, and I do not wish for it to be dwelled upon today, of all days. But I will say how much I am hurting because of what has happened, for she didn’t deserve it.

“I wish for Zaria to be remembered for the promising and well cherished girl she was. Her love for many animals, mostly with horses. The positive affect she clearly had on those who needed a good heart to confine in, or who would stand up to those who needed to be bought down a peg or two. It is safe to say, I am one of those who had been taken down a peg or two by Zaria on a few occasions.

“For me personally, Zaria will be remembered for simply being the daughter Bethany and I were blessed to have in our lives. Also knowing that she is with her mother now, is a small ounce of comfort.  
“Thank you.”

When Severus sat back down, he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder from Lucius, as the rest of the procession continued, where some of Zaria’s friends spoke either poems, or little moments of what they shared with Zaria.

The last moments were of a montage of photos and snippets of videos that were laced over four songs; “Forever Young”, by Alphaville, “Return to Innocence”, by Enigma, “You’ll be in my Heart”, by Phil Collins and the last one was “The Horses”, by Daryl Braithwaite – Zaria’s personal all time favourite song, because it had ‘horses’ for the title and to her it was about horses, that was justification enough to favour it.

Severus had done his best to hold it together until that point. When “The Horses” came on, the tears just flowed, and at that point it was one of the times where he near on didn’t care how vulnerable he looked, he was hurting and it showed.

The curtain closed as the casket began to lower down into the furnace.  
Watching this was like a dagger to the mourning father’s heart.

He couldn’t find the will to move from his seat, he didn’t stop Narcissa from placing her arms around him as he sobbed, face covered by his hands.

Oh, how he wished he could go back in time, to before this had happened, heck, even to when they just found out he and Beth were expecting their little girl, so he could just take his wife and leave the United Kingdom; he’d find some ‘excuse’ to appease the other Death Eaters, just to get out from under the manipulative corruption that was the British Ministry and those who sucked up the Dumbledore.

That way his little girl wouldn’t have had to deal with the defective heart and lungs. They wouldn’t have had to spend years getting answers, only to finally get them, have their lives interfered with by those who wanted to keep a firm hold on their own selfish goals, using anyone, including Severus and his family, to achieve that. Severus would still have Bethany... they would still have Zaria... they would...

“What did I ever do to deserve this?” he mutters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs in order of how they were played during the service, if you wish to listen to them;
> 
> "Please Remember Me" Tim McGraw  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA9Z2teKB0A
> 
> "Forever Young" Alphaville  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1TcDHrkQYg
> 
> "Return to Innocence" Enigma  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk_sAHh9s08
> 
> "You'll be in My Heart" Phil Collins  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIVaUcE4kAM
> 
> "The Horses" Daryl Braithwaite  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnigc08J6FI


	14. The Verdicts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus learns of the fates of those who have caused so much pain toward him and his family.

Chapter 14  
The Verdicts

Severus sat among the gallery to see out the sentencing that was to be read out for the accused.

Attached to his robes was a simple silver pin that was in the shape of a horse in gallop, with a tiny peridot on its flank, looking like a beauty spot. He found it the day after Zaria’s funeral, when he was quietly sitting in her old room. He remembered this pin, Zaria used to wear it during her competitions, or any time she felt the need for her ‘spirit animal’ to be close; a few of those time was during her time at Hogwarts.

Her patronus was a horse, so it made sense for such a simple little clothes pin to mean something greater.  
To honour Zaria for this day, Severus wore it, to represent her in the courtroom.

He chose to be in the UK for this – knowing that he was safe thanks to the simple fact that whatever magical chains that were once put on him to prevent him from leaving to be with his family in the first place, and with a constant threat of something bad happening to them keep to them if he dared to go to Australia, (until it took for Zaria’s need to go back), were completely broken.

They were illegal in the first place! The British Ministry of Magic were told repeatedly to remove the blockade, only to find that they were unrelenting... now they were paying the price for their will to try and cover up and force iron fist control.

Many quick changes were done, including relieving people of their cushy jobs and forcing them to work at the ‘less desirable work’, or simply not given any contract at all. Many positions were given to the workers who were interviewed and thoroughly checked over and over before allowing them to have those spots, or return them to the ones who had them before the whole sweeping.

Some were expelled from being allowed to do magic ever again, having their wands snapped. Others were tossed out of the Wizard community all together – also with their wands snapped, forced to make their way into the Muggle World. They were given whatever the Muggle money equivalent was of Galleons within their vaults, and left to survive... or dwindle.

Minerva McGonagall, who had been questioned as to why she hadn’t done her duty of care, such as addressing to the concerns of a concerned parent, or even when evidence of harassment was bought forward, it was almost ignored. Her response was that she simply couldn’t see any wrong doing. Yet she was interrogated again and again over many incidents in the past, until the woman said that she was under strict orders to do the bare minimum to help certain students if they were being harassed.

Needless to say, she was no longer allowed to be Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, nor was she Head of Gryffindor House. She was still allowed to teach Transfigurations, but was under a very strict probation with conditions attached.

Severus believed the consequence was justifiable, as he did think the woman was still of use when it came to guiding the students in the dangerous art of transfiguration.

Albus Dumbledore was sentenced to life in Azkaban. His wand was taken away and the cell he was placed in was a specialised one – it wipes all of the magic out of the guilty person should they be placed in one. Their magical core is near on crushed... making it easier for the Dementors to ‘feast’ on the dwindling souls upon their downward spiral, until there was no soul left to be had. A slower version to the Dementor’s Kiss, nicknamed ‘the Dementor’s Diffusion’ – though some have gone as far as calling it the Dementor’s version of soul raping.

Percy Weasley was blacklisted for ten years of ever having a Ministry job, even if he was able to pass all of his subjects, they wouldn’t matter much. He was given a list of the jobs he could do, as they were part of the community services that was put in place for those who didn’t go into Azkaban. However, he was expelled from Hogwarts, so completing his subject exams wasn’t going to happen, so jobs choices were to be of a minimum for the third eldest Weasley son. The other option is to find a job in the Muggle world and earn his money that way, the thing there is... he wouldn’t be able to do much in terms of magic, if anything this was heavily restricted to the point where he was no higher than a squib.

Because he no longer had the Weasley Burrow to go to – due to being disowned – Percy was given a choice of three accommodations that would be ‘suitable’ for him and his predicament. All of them were simple little living spaces with a bedroom, kitchenette and bathroom, with a tiny living space, nothing more. (Sort of a halfway house if were to place it into Muggle terms).

Because of her age, Ginny Weasley was given the choice of being expelled from Hogwarts, this meant having her wand snapped, or to continue on at Hogwarts, but forever have it on record about her involvement in endangering another student that resulted in her passing, and other grievous actions toward the person. This would mean that majority of her potential in ever getting a good and decent job within the Wizard world is almost as restricted as Percy’s, only she did have a bit more room to move. Plus there was the chance of being able to redeem herself, as she was still twelve years old.

Ginny chose the latter, she did have the expression of knowing just how horrible her actions had been, and was in tears during the proceedings of her choice of verdict.

She was able to go back to the Burrow, but under very strict conditions. Molly and Arthur could see the remorse in their only daughter, that was, perhaps, why the allowed her back. Whereas it was very different when it came to their youngest son, Ronald Weasley.

Like Percy, he didn’t seem too sorry for his part in the downturn of Zaria Snape’s health, resulting in death.

In his own admission he said; ‘she didn’t belong in Gryffindor; she shouldn’t have been in Hogwarts if she was that sick’ – Severus Snape wanted to snap the boy’s neck when he heard those words.

Harry had dropped his friendship well before that came out. When he heard what had been said, all he could do was write a letter of apology to Severus because he felt that the father ought to know that he would never support someone with that sort of a view, and he wished he saw the signs earlier, even with him trying, trying to get Ron and Hermione to stop their harassment and...

Severus could no longer hold any malice toward the son of the man he once hated; he finally saw just how different Harry was from James. How James would have been like if he had of still been alive, Severus didn’t know, but he had the assurance to know that sons do not always end up like their fathers.

Ron was expelled from Hogwarts, wand snapped and placed into a juvenile equivalent to Azkaban. There were no Dementors here, but there was heavy monitoring. The youngest Weasley boy was assessed and tested... let’s just say he’s not leaving the facility any time soon.

Lavender Brown was given the similar sentence to Ginny Weasley, only she chose to have her wand snapped. If anything, she chose to no longer be among the magic community, to accommodate for this choice, the Ministry had given the girl a few options that would allow it. Her memory was modified on top of this.

As for Hermione Granger, whom was the so called ‘influential leader’ of the group, the one who was able to sneak into Professor Snape’s office, where he had placed the fresh batch of medication potions for Zaria upon his desk, along with a puffer – as the cool weather had been giving her a small ounce of trouble with breathing.  
Turned out she, (with the help of the others, either as lookouts or aids to the tampering), had been messing with the potions every three to four days since the second week of Zaria attending.

The affects on Zaria had been extremely subtle; it was easily missed, passed off as something minor. Not even Gunner could pick it up, until it was becoming increasingly obvious. For before the major shift in Lupin’s classroom, Zaria had been having small episodes, but was able to recover, even kept on top of her work and activities, not wanting this to hold her down; never mind being told to take it easy by her concerned father.

When Hermione Granger was asked why, the teenager’s reply was; “I didn’t think there was anything really wrong with her. Many of us believed she was faking in having a bad heart and lungs, because it’s something that doesn’t happen in the Wizarding world, only the Muggle one.

“She needed to learn that just because her father was a Professor she should get special treatment, _especially_ with that dog!”

“ _That_ , Miss Granger, is where you are sorely mistaken,” Severus spoke up, for he was there for Hermione Granger’s questioning – it was one of the few he made sure he was present for, and Granger didn’t see him until that point.

Hermione Granger was surprised to see him, (for she had heard that he rarely ever shown up and believed it would be the case here). The expression on her former Potions teacher’s face was one that was mixed with true loathing, revulsion and anguish.

“My daughter was born from a heart and lung defect that wasn’t discovered until she was four. There are theories from the attempt to kill her before she was born, to my own family history line on a gene that passes on defects to the heart or lungs; Zaria got the misfortune of receiving both, and we have never been able to answer on whether it was genetics or the attempt on her life, or both. To dismiss that certain disorders and defects are only for Muggles, and Muggles alone, or even visa-versa, is utter ignorant and false.

“ _You_ have not only just insulted my family, _you’ve_ also insulted a number of other young witches and wizards who are also battling their own health issues, as well as Muggles, yes, I add them in, too, because even I am not ignorant and blind to the happenings within both, you will be amazed how many purebloods are aware of this, too.

“Not to mention the sheer jealousy and self-centred view that you’re being seen as an equal to Zaria where academics are concerned. Believing she was somehow a teacher’s pet, which you believed was your position and yours alone... failing to see and understand that Zaria has never had the desire of being anyone’s favourite, _especially_ from teachers!

“Zaria _hated_ special treatment! She despised anyone thinking and believing she is this weakling who needs, or even _wants_ , to be coddled, and has proven that time and time again when it came to the things she does, both in activities and her own education. She was equal to you in the classes you were both in, _because she just happened to be_! My daughter wanted to learn, so her mother and I gave her that, no matter the subject matter! There have been some limits to what she could learn at various ages, but if you really got to know her, you would have learned very, very quickly just how she would find ways to going around those limits, but maintained within them, as well.

“You would have also learned how much she would give someone the time of day if they deserved it, or in cases, needed that ear. She may have been having her own struggles, but she didn’t let it stop her from having compassion and empathy, or the desire to want to help another living soul! Or did you fail to notice this during her lessons during Care for Magical Creatures? Or in general toward another student?

“Worse in all of this is when _you_ took it upon yourself to harm _my daughter! My only child!_ All because _you_ believed she was being fake and seeking attention and had special treatment! You _**deliberately**_ tampered with the very things that were designed for her to have the ability to live. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was from the Healers or myself who had done the brewing, it is the fact that you...

“I am on the assumption that you knew she wasn’t faking it! You just didn’t like some new student, who had explained to you time and time again, taking your little spotlight, so you set out to humiliate her, which turned into something where you just wanted her to suffer.”

“No! That’s not -”

Severus cuts off Miss Granger, who had been shaking her head, tears rolling down her face and literally denying everything that was being told to her – though she had admitted to everything in her involvement and why she did what she had done.  
“If you truly believed Zaria was faking things, why tamper the medication? Especially in knowing how to make it undetectable, even to me, who tests every one of them before giving them to her?”

“ _Because there is no possible way that someone with a bad heart and lungs could, or would, do the stuff she was going on about! If she was really that bad she shouldn’t have been able, or allowed to ride a horse!_ _Or swim with sharks!_ What _idiot_ wants to swim with creatures that are known to be monsters of the sea? If Zaria truly _was_ with defects, _she_ should have been locked in a room and told _no she can’t_! Instead of being given the reasons to show off and speak of how good she is!”  
Hermione clamped her mouth shut the moment she realised on who she just shouted her admission to!

Severus just turns and walks out of the courtroom, unable to find the words to return the ones that cut him to the core.

Now, the verdict was being given;  
“Hermione Jean Granger, you have been found guilty for charges of the grievous bodily harm, the attempted murder, and the murder of Zaria Hope Snape, the sentence that you will be given will be the Dementor’s Kiss! As we could not find any other punishment that could, or would, fit.”

“But, I’m only fourteen!” Hermione whines. “You can’t -... My parents -!”

“Will have their memories erased on ever having you as their daughter,” the girl was cut off. “You may be fourteen, girl, but you committed something so heinous and beyond disturbing, and to speak with a clear head, as opposed to Mr Weasley who was completely insane, we have no other option.”

“But... I didn’t mean to make her die! Please!”  
Hermione Granger’s pleas were fallen on deaf ears.

She saw Severus Snape rise up from his seat and going toward the door to exit out. But before he left completely, he looked back at her.  
Justified was the only word to describe the expression Hermione saw on his face. In his view – and he had her see it plain as day in that mere moment – she was getting exactly what she deserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I give no apologies to the sentencing upon the characters.  
> Dumbledore deserves the slow, well drawn, soul sucking he's getting.  
> Hermione... well... I kinda am not caring if she is fourteen... I just couldn't see that girl going to the Juvenile Ward where Ron when because she was more sound of mind that what Ron was...  
> I may have given Ginny and Lavender 'lesser' charges, but I did have to take everything into account, including upon Percy.


	15. Two months later

Chapter 15  
Two months later

“Daddy!”

A warm grin went across his face when he saw her all beaming, and welcomed the hug she gave him.

“Are you ready to go?” he asks.  
Jasmine nods eagerly. “So is Chloe!”

Severus gives a small chuckle, looking over at the now five month old, who was more occupied in trying to get on her hands and knees to get ready to crawl, but to automatically flop back down on her belly. But Chloe saw Severus and gives a gummy grin.

“Where is Gunner?” Jasmine asks.  
“He’s waiting at home,” Severus replies.

Though Zaria was no longer around, Gunner was allowed to retire with Severus, as it appeared the dog was just as capable in watching out for the two little girls he met on that fateful day two months ago, which led Severus to get to know them, too.

Gunner was a dog that wanted and needed a purpose, and he couldn’t go to just anyone, so having this arrangement turned out the best for everyone.

Severus had company on those lonely nights since his daughter had passed away. Jasmine and Chloe had a furry companion to look forward to seeing, along with Severus, of course.

Throughout the number of days to weeks that ended up being two months, Severus’s healing process was helped by these two girls.

He learned of their history, where they were from a home of severe neglect, drug abuse and more. It a lucky notion that Chloe wasn’t born an addict herself thanks to the mother who birthed decided ‘to do the right thing’ and stopped taking her drugs of choice... only to jump straight back on to them not too long after the little girl was born.

It took a good while to track down the mother of the little girls, for it was her who just dumped the girls. Poor Jasmine still had trouble understanding why her Mummy wouldn’t come to see her.

Severus would learn that the mother of these girls dumped them because she met some man who didn’t want the burden of children... and was just as heavy into the addictions of drugs and alcohol.

In all that time, the connection between Severus and the girls grew. He would visit them often, even after they were discharged from the hospital and placed into a temporary foster home; he made the effort ensure they saw him many times a week. To the point of starting the process of adopting them.

He was willing to go through the checks and clearances.  
His home was assessed, and the property itself, given that it was quite large being the resembling of a hobby farm.  
There were even trials, where Severus would have them for either the day, or an overnight, to be absolute. Whenever these happened, Severus made sure Jasmine and Chloe were very well cared for.

Jasmine did learn of Zaria, having to have stumbled into her old bedroom on the first day she was able to see Severus’s home.  
“I bet she would have been a great big sister!” she said.

Severus was mixed about that, but mostly humbled by the statement; for he knew that it would be true. If he and Bethany had of been able to have had more children, Zaria would have been awesome as a big sister... it did get him wondering if it was Zaria, herself, who helped lead Gunner to Jasmine and Chloe in the first place.

Today, a nice cool April day – being now that it was autumn in New South Wales, (and the rest of the country of Australia) – was the day Severus got to finally bring his new daughters home with him.

The approval was given to him the day before, but had to wait until this day to pick them up because of some finalisation and whatever else that needed to be done.  
Also Severus wanted to make sure that his daughters had their rooms nice and ready. For those two months, Severus had slowly made the process of packing away many of Zaria’s belongings; it was painful, with many tears and laughs. He had also reorganised the main bedroom, so that the third room could be set up and ready, too.

The house itself was a four bedroom home, nothing fancy, nice and simple. Though, of course, personality was put into it over the years since Bethany and Zaria had called it home, until now.

It didn’t take too long to have Jasmine and Chloe completely organised and ready to leave the foster home they were in, placed into the car that was now Severus’s – what the British Ministry didn’t know was that Severus had a drivers licence and was able to transfer it to having an Australian one; for in Australia, it was seen as wise to have one, given the vastness of the place. Apparating great distances, even Portkeys, or flying... yeah... you’re better off having a car licence to make things much, much more easier to get around.

Also, Severus liked being able to do something that wasn’t all magical, such as having and driving a car.  
Gunner was waiting enthusiastically at the gates when he saw them, wagging his tail and barking excitedly. Jasmine was met with a welcoming lick to the face, which sent her into giggles; Gunner simply licks Chloe’s foot when Severus got her out of her car seat and out of the car.

The front door opens;  
“Harry!” Jasmine exclaims running over.  
Harry Potter envelops the little girl into the readying hug she was after.  
“Hey Jazzy,” he says, smiling broadly, before speaking to Severus; “The dough is just about ready to be rolled out.”  
“Dough?” Jasmine asks.  
“We’re having homemade pizza for lunch,” Severus tells her.  
“Yippee!” Jasmine cheers.

Chloe puts her hands up, too, giving her own little cheer, which was responded with little laughs from Severus and Harry.  
“Did Linda help you with the prepping?” Severus inquired of Harry as they went inside.  
“More than helped, she gave me some tips to make the dough of better consistency and her special recipe for the sauce,” Harry replies.  
“To which I was more than happy to pass on to Harry,” said the kind and cheery tone of Linda Klaus.  
The moment she learned of Severus starting the process of adopting Jasmine and Chloe, plus on his helping Harry Potter, she stepped in, and has been a massive help since.

During the final days of Severus being in the United Kingdom after the trials and sentencing, he decided to check in on the Manor he had donated toward helping children who needed a safe home, away from abuse and neglect, and, of course, the children and teens that were supposed to be protected.

Everything was to Severus’s satisfaction; he didn’t hesitate to check with the ICW to be sure, either. But what he discovered was something that chilled him to the bone.

Harry Potter, it seems, was getting threats and attempts against him, and harassment.  
Why?  
Seemed Dumbledore had some written contract of sorts that if anything were to happen to him, the boy who lived, Harry Potter, must not be allowed to live, because without the great wizard to help guide the boy, there would be a Dark Lord worse than Voldemort, because no normal baby would have survived the death curse... unless they were pure evil.

Plus the fact Dumbledore still had his followers, Severus wasn’t taking chances, immediately got whatever approval he needed to get Harry Potter out of the UK and live with him in Australia, in safety!

He also discovered just how his so called former friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, had really treated him, until he dropped them. Turns out that they were simply using him ‘to get ahead’ and that whenever he would get something positive in his life, they would try and either down play it, or use it for their own gain – especially Hermione, who didn’t want the famous Potter to overshadow her in being on top of her class.

Not to mention the effects of abuse the boy had copped over the years from his Aunt and Uncle – with no-one doing anything about it! Just as bad was learning that said Aunt and Uncle were trying to get Harry back!

Why?  
The reasons behind this demand had Severus literally go to 4 Privet Drive, Surrey, himself, showing himself upon their front door.  
“Good evening Petunia, is your husband home?”  
Petunia crosses her arms. “No...”  
“You’re lying!” Severus sneers. “Where is he?”  
“What’s going on Petunia?”

Vernon showed himself... Severus pulled his wand out and with a quick flick, forced the man to go down to his hands and knees, making an umbrella fly from its stand, ripped the man’s pants down, just enough to show his bum crack, and magically shoved the tip of the umbrella right up into Vernon’s anus.  
Vernon screamed in utter pain as the umbrella was yanked back and forth, tearing him bloody.

“I knew you were just some nasty person, Severus!” Petunia screeched.  
“At least I don’t go turning a blind eye when my nephew is being raped, Petunia!” Severus seethed. He points at the sobbing Vernon, lying on the floor, with the umbrella still sodomising him. “Just know that someone will be sent to collect for him! Harry is now under my guardianship and Mr Dursley will be facing criminal charges against my son!”  
“Your son! Harry is not your son!”  
“For as long as he is living under my roof, in my care, and has his needs seen to, he is!” Severus said. “One does not need to be blood to be family.”

Harry wasn’t fully told of what Severus had done to Vernon, but he did learn that his Uncle was now in prison with a nice tattoo on his forehead... and Severus made sure he was in the general population of the prison, not under protective custody.

Petunia was given a lesser sentence.  
As for Dudley, well... he’s in the foster system – not so tough now from what Harry heard.  
Harry did ask Severus why he would want him, after everything.

“Because I was blinded by my own opinions I thought were correct, only to find out that I should have opened my eyes and learned the way Zaria did. I wanted to, not only make things right, but do the right thing, whatever the pathway was to achieve that.  
“I guess part of that was making sure that you weren’t harmed anymore.”

It was the honesty that Harry appreciated. He accepted Severus’s offer to be under his full guardianship, he didn’t mind living in a different country either. Harry saw straight away the vast difference between the UK and Australia when it came to how things were run and who was the less corrupt and caring for its people.

On top of this, it was Harry who helped in the influence of gaining Jasmine and Chloe into Severus’s custody and full approval for adoption. Because if this man was willing to take on a teenager who wasn’t even his own, but the child of parents who didn’t treat him well, then what was stopping him from accepting two little children who needed and wanted a home where they can be loved and cared for?

Plus, Severus wasn’t going to be without help; Linda Klaus being proof of this.  
Linda stuck around long enough to help put the toppings on the pizzas and put them in the oven, before letting the family be.  
While waiting Jasmine and Chloe were shown to their new rooms.

Chloe was given the room Severus had chosen to sleep in at first after moving into the house with Zaria and during the time of Zaria’s downhill and just after her passing.

The room was given a simplistic theme, her cot was white, as was the change table and the armchair near the cot, as was the shelving where books and toys were.  
All of the clothes, nappies and whatever else Chloe was in need for was ready to go.

Jasmine received Zaria’s old room. It was a little hard for Severus, at first, to do, but he was pleased to have gone through the process and have the room be changed and ready to be used once more.  
When this was Zaria’s room it was covered with horses and many other animals she liked, flags from the places she’s been to, as well as trophies, mementos and more. Zaria was a real nature’s girl and a wild child when it came to activities.

Now that Jasmine was to be occupying the room, a Princess theme was chosen, as she was obsessed with Princesses, because Princesses are good hearted girls who like to help people and animals! That’s what her logic.  
“Oh, and they get to wear pretty dresses!” she adds.  
It was of no surprise to have Jasmine thrilled when she was introduced to the horses and got to ride one, ‘just like a Princess’.

“Oh, wow! I have a... what is it?”  
“Canopy,” said Severus, observing his new daughter’s intake in her new room, with a light pink canopy over the beautifully made bed of Disney Princess sheets – Harry spotted them by chance and suggested that it might help Jasmine’s transition if she got to have a bed ‘just like a princess’.  
A little dressing table with an oval mirror, shelving for books and toys, as well as a little toy-box.

Jasmine’s eyes widened with joy when she saw the dollhouse and little table with chairs – along with some wrapped presents in around them.  
“Are those for me?” she asks.  
“Pretty sure they weren’t for Harry,” Severus replies.  
“It would be pretty funny if they were,” Harry does quip. “Only to straight to Jasmine and Chloe.”  
Jasmine was all giddy with joy when she went over to the presents, picking the envelope first and opening it. Inside was a card where the Princess was dancing gracefully before the little girl’s eyes.  
“Cool! But what do the words say?”

Jasmine didn’t fully know how to read yet, but will be starting her new school soon, one that was best suited for children who needed a little help catching up to where their levels ought to be.  
Harry went over and sat beside her and read aloud; “May the Little Princess enjoy her special day full of wishes and birthday cheer. Happy 6th Birthday from Daddy, Harry, Chloe and Gunner.”

Severus had been called ‘Daddy’ by Jasmine for just over a month, he didn’t influence her to call him by this name, it just happened one day and it stuck. He hadn’t expected to be called by this name, at least not by Jasmine, Chloe perhaps, and it did catch him off guard, as he it had only been a short while since he was simply called ‘Dad’... before that, he was...

“Thank you!” Jasmine says.  
The smell of the pizzas came wafting on in.  
“Would you like to open the presents after we’ve eaten?” Severus asks.  
“May I open just one?”  
“Alright.”

Chloe was watching on with interest, as her big sister chooses a present and opens it.  
Jasmine looks at Severus when she saw the two gymnastics leotards.  
“You mean? I get to do gymnastics again?” she asks.  
Severus nods, smiling. “You start your new lessons in two weeks.”  
“Goody!”

Lunch was taken to the back patio, where it was nice and slightly breezy.  
Severus couldn’t help but think back to this time last year, when he was still a Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in Scotland, teaching potions, one of his former students right here with him now, as his adopted son. He thought of the years of fighting to have his wife and child in his life more than it was, only to have it dashed so cruelly.

He didn’t expect things to turn out the way they had.  
He will always miss Bethany and Zaria, his two lionesses.  
Yet, he was grateful to have been given a chance to have a reason to get up in the morning, and not only heal himself, but the help heal the three lions he was now calling his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is NOT the end of the story, merely the end of a 'book' if that makes sense.  
> There will be others that branch from this story, including possible alternative universes.  
> Plus there were meant to be chapters that were from Zaria's memory/childhood, so there will be a 'book' for this, so look out for this and the others in the series that will be titled "Hopes of the Heart".


End file.
